House Speaker Mike Johnson goes back to 'Plan A' on stopgap bill, for now

WASHINGTON — The House is set to vote Wednesday on Speaker Mike Johnson’s six-month stopgap spending plan despite near certain defeat in the face of GOP defections and almost unanimous Democratic opposition.

The bill has remained unchanged from last week, when Johnson pulled it from the floor before an expected vote. It includes a controversial elections bill that would require those registering to vote to show proof of citizenship, which Democrats say will make it more difficult for legal voters who can’t obtain the right documentation in time.

Johnson, R-La., confirmed the plan in a statement Tuesday morning. He said that Congress has “an immediate obligation to do two things: responsibly fund the federal government, and ensure the security of our elections.”

Only one Democrat — Maine’s Jared Golden — has publicly expressed support, while more than enough Republicans to defeat the bill have publicly said they would oppose it. That number is expected to grow if the bill is put on the floor Wednesday as planned.

The bill is facing Republican opposition from conservatives who do not support continuing the current spending levels and prefer to see cuts. Critics on the right like Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., have also argued that attaching the voting restrictions bill is simply “theater” because they know the Senate won’t accept it.

“I won’t be any part of this insulting charade. I’m a hell no,” Massie posted Tuesday morning on the social media platform X.

And GOP defense hawks believe that six months of flat funding would do too much harm to the Pentagon. House Armed Services Chairman Mike D. Rogers, R-Ala., is one of the bill’s notable opponents.

It wasn’t clear that members of Johnson’s own leadership team were on board with the strategy of holding a doomed vote; one source familiar with the talks depicted the plan as “exclusively” the speaker’s.

But holding the vote would be the clearest way to demonstrate that the House cannot pass the voting legislation attached to the continuing resolution, which is needed by the end of the month to avoid a partial government shutdown. A spokesman for the conservative Heritage Foundation tweeted support for Johnson’s effort and hinted at a pressure campaign against GOP holdouts.

“Republicans who oppose this bill will help Democrats achieve their ultimate goal: a short-term CR and a reckless Christmas omnibus,” Cody Sargent, Heritage’s communications director, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

If Republicans are unable to pass the bill Wednesday, it is not clear what Johnson’s next step would be.

If he were to immediately roll out another bill that may be more acceptable to Democrats — namely, a bill without the voting legislation that goes only to December — the earliest the House could vote while following the GOP conference’s 72-hour rule for considering new legislation would be Saturday. A vote next week is considered more likely at this point.

Alternatively, Johnson could wait for the Senate to send over its preferred stopgap bill, which could take several days to process. While appropriators are working on drafting a stopgap bill that would run through Dec. 13, senators said Monday night they were still waiting to see if and how the House would move.

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., on the floor Tuesday morning suggested Johnson’s plan may be what’s needed to turn the page and get down to bipartisan talks. “The only thing that will accomplish is make clear he’s running into a dead end,” Schumer said of Johnson’s planned vote Wednesday.

Johnson planned to meet with his leadership team as well as top House GOP appropriators Tuesday night after House lawmakers return to Washington, and with the full Republican Conference on Wednesday morning.

Secret Service

Lawmakers were also discussing a potential new wrinkle in the CR talks because of renewed attention on the Secret Service budget after the apparent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump over the weekend.

The agency has asked Congress for more funding between now and the inauguration of a new president next January. And with the fiscal 2025 Homeland Security spending bill on hold like the rest of the full-year appropriations bills, the best opportunity to do that is on a CR.

The White House has formally asked Congress to include flexibility to “surge” its CR funding into the first few months of the fiscal year rather than dribble it out in stages as is typical. That provision is included in the House GOP stopgap bill, but the White House proposal assumes a mid-December duration rather than March 28 as in the House bill.

Lawmakers aren’t yet clear whether an additional funding boost, rather than just additional flexibility, is needed now or whether it can wait until the final spending package, and have asked for more clarity from the Secret Service.

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(Paul M. Krawzak and David Lerman contributed to this report.)