Luna Doubles Down, Promising To Keep House Floor Shuttered Until SAVE America Act Attached to Must-Pass Bill

Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna is refusing to bend in her fight with Speaker Mike Johnson, saying she will keep the House floor shuttered until the SAVE America Act is attached to a must-pass national security bill. Ms. Luna says the voter ID and proof of citizenship bill needs to become law before the midterm elections. Ms. Luna, a member of the Freedom Caucus, fired her first shot at Mr. Johnson more last week, when she and a band of hardline conservatives announced that they would not allow the speaker to open the floor for debate and legislative votes. Her strategy followed President Trump’s demand that Congress do nothing before sending the SAVE America Act to his desk. After Mr. Trump abruptly canceled a signing ceremony for a major bipartisan housing reform bill, Ms. Luna announced that she had to votes to block Mr. Johnson from adopting a “rule,” which is a procedural vote to open the House floor for debate and votes on legislation. Without adopting a rule, the House is unable to pass legislation with a simple majority. Mr. Johnson ended up sending his colleagues home last week when it became clear that the hardliners would be acquiesce. This week, Mr. Johnson called their bluff, putting a rule up for a vote. Conservatives stuck to their guns, however, and voted with Democrats to keep the House floor closed. Mr. Johnson again was then forced to send lawmakers home early. On Thursday, Ms. Luna said that her position is not changing after the House returns for its next session in about ten days. She even called out her Republican colleagues who have been complaining about her anonymously to reporters. “Even though some of you are making comments about me in the press, I won’t respond back with your incredibly brilliant stock trades that smell like insider trading, especially given your committees of jurisdiction. It’s okay, the American people will do that for me,” Ms. Luna said in a post on X Thursday. In her statement, she said she was 1000 percent sure that all future rule votes will fail until Mr. Johnson gives her a vote on an amendment to add the SAVE America Act to the National Defense Authorization Act — a must-pass piece of legislation that authorizes the Pentagon’s activities every year. “I don’t care who in this chamber hates me for it. I don’t work for you. I don’t work for Washington. I work for the American people,” Ms. Luna wrote on X. “It’s time the House force the Senate to do their jobs. Failure is not an option.”Congressman Max Miller, a Republican who helped Ms. Luna kill the most recent rule vote, wrote on X that he agreed with his colleague. Given Mr. Johnson’s incredibly tight majorities, he is only able to lose three Republican members on any given party-line vote. On the last rule vote, 13 Republicans voted no. Speaking to reporters after the rule vote failure on Tuesday, Mr. Johnson — who almost never criticizes his fellow Republicans in the House — was clear that the hardliners’ strongarm tactics were not going to work. He said that they were irresponsibly locking up the House floor as he and other lawmakers were trying to do their jobs. “It’s too important to stop progress. A couple of the [Republican] members, if you ask them why they voted no, they’ll say it was out of frustration [with] Senate Democrats refusing to do the will of the American people and work on election integrity,” Mr. Johnson said. “It makes no sense for us to stop our very important progress forward by House Republicans because some Senate Democrats are refusing to do their job.”

Luna Doubles Down, Promising To Keep House Floor Shuttered Until SAVE America Act Attached to Must-Pass Bill

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