Speaker Johnson axes Trump voting rules in government funding bill

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday announced a new temporary government funding proposal with key amendments from the original bill he put forward earlier this month, going against former President Donald Trump’s wishes and making some concessions to Democrats.

The new bill would fund the government through Dec. 20 and does not include any part of the SAVE Act, the Trump-backed election security proposal that would require people to show proof of citizenship to register as a voter.

In a letter to colleagues on Sunday, Johnson said the “very narrow, bare-bones” proposal would include “only the extensions that are absolutely necessary” to avoid a government shutdown.

Congressional Republicans and Democrats have eight days to strike a deal on government funding. If no resolution is reached, the government will go into partial shutdown on Oct. 1 at 12:01 a.m. E.T., just over a month away from the November election when party control will be up for grabs in both the White House and Congress.

“While this is not the solution any of us prefer, it is the most prudent path forward under the present circumstances,” Johnson wrote in the letter. “As history has taught and current polling affirms, shutting the government down less than 40 days from a fateful election would be an act of political malpractice.”

The new bill will likely get to the House floor by Wednesday, according to House Republican aides.

The three-month spending plan also includes $231 million for the Secret Service, responding to increasing pressure from the agency for more resources after another apparent assassination attempt against Trump last Sunday.

The previous version of Johnson’s bill would have funded the government through March 2025, meaning funding levels would already be set in place for the newly elected president and Congress. It also came with the SAVE Act attached.

Trump preferred that iteration of the spending resolution. He wrote on Truth Social earlier this month that if Republicans “don’t get absolute assurances on Election Security,” they should not hesitate to shut the government down.

But the six-month stopgap funding bill paired with the SAVE Act struggled to get off the ground within the House Republican caucus. Some GOP members were against any notion of funding the government on a temporary basis. Others took issue with specific funding allocations, which would have been fixed for six months if the bill passed.

With a razor-thin majority in the House, Johnson could only afford to lose four GOP votes to pass the bill within his own chamber.

“Since we fell a bit short of the goal line, an alternative plan is now required,” Johnson wrote to his colleagues in the letter Sunday.

Democrats also pledged to vote against the six-month bill coupled with the SAVE Act. That meant the proposal would have been dead on arrival in the Democrat-majority Senate.

By dropping the SAVE Act and introducing a three-month bill, Johnson’s new funding proposal reflects key compromises with Democrats.

President Joe Biden and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had both advocated for a shorter-term proposal with no bills paired so that come January, the newly elected governing body could begin with a blank slate.

Schumer welcomed the changes from the House speaker.

“We really now have some good news,” Schumer said at a Sunday press conference, noting that a government shutdown would likely be avoided.

“Now that the MAGA GOP bill has failed, it’s clear that only a bipartisan budget bill will keep the government open,” he added. “This blazing red knot that MAGA has tied around the GOP has come loose.”

Johnson’s concessions to Democrats could loom over his speakership. His predecessor, former Republican California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, became the first House speaker to be ousted from his post after he struck a deal with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown in October 2023.