Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) faced a major setback on the House floor on Tuesday night after a handful of Republicans tanked a party-line vote to block resolutions looking to repeal President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The House failed to pass a procedural measure, called a “rule,” on a slate of bills that included language to extend the prohibition of members from calling up bills to repeal the administration’s tariffs through July 31. The measure failed 214 to 217, with three Republicans joining all Democrats in voting against it.
This is a blow to leadership and Johnson, making this the seventh rule failure he’s faced since taking the speaker’s gavel. He had narrowly avoided a rule failure multiple times over the last six months, often by flipping a handful of GOP holdouts by actively whipping them on the floor. Before Tuesday, the most recent party-line vote failure occurred in July involving cryptocurrency and appropriations bills.
The vote on Tuesday sought to extend previous language that blocked tariff repeal resolutions from getting a vote, which expired at the end of January. But Democrats and some Republicans have numerous bills disapproving of Trump’s tariffs ready to go once the prohibition is lifted, hence why GOP leadership rushed this week to try and reinstate the ban.
Johnson holds a one-seat majority, and he faced at least two Republican detractors heading into the vote. Votes in the House were delayed from Tuesday afternoon to the evening as leadership sought to convince nearly half a dozen GOP holdouts to vote for the measure.
The speaker was successful in staving off opposition from members such as Reps. Tom McClintock (R-CA), Victoria Spartz (R-IN), or Mike Turner (R-OH), who have previously pushed back against tariffs.
Reps. Zach Nunn (R-IA), Dan Newhouse (R-WA), and Victoria Spartz (R-IN) withheld their votes for a time, but all three ended up voting “yes.” This came after Spartz said throughout the day on Tuesday that she was opposed to the measure, eventually flipping her vote as she has done on several other contentious bills this Congress.
GOP attendance also proved to be an issue, with Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC) not voting this week. He has been recovering from surgery and has missed several votes since the start of the year. But Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX), who has missed several votes while campaigning for the Texas Senate GOP primary, was present on Tuesday night and voted for the rule.
The vote was held open for nearly an hour, with Democrats calling on Republicans to close it after it was clear Massie, Bacon, and Kiley were not returning.
Massie’s opposing vote was unsurprising, as he often votes against party-line measures. Kiley had told reporters earlier in the day that he would only vote for the measure if the tariff restriction language was stripped out.
“My main issue here is, this isn’t the purpose of a rule,” Kiley said. “The rule is meant to bring a bill to the floor, set the parameters for debate. It’s not meant to smuggle in unrelated provisions that expand the power of leadership at the expense of our members. That’s the reason I oppose it. I don’t understand why this keeps coming up.”
Bacon voted no and quickly left the Capitol. He told reporters he was not swayed by pressure from leadership.
“I have to answer to Article 1,” Bacon said.
He later said in a post to X he doesn’t like stalling the House but “Congress needs to be able to debate on tariffs.”
“Article I of the Constitution places authority over taxes and tariffs with Congress for a reason, but for too long, we have handed that authority to the executive branch,” Bacon said. “It’s time for Congress to reclaim that responsibility. I also oppose using the rules votes to legislate. I want the debate and the right to vote on tariffs.”
Johnson has tried to avoid putting contentious bills on the floor that could be politically damaging as much as possible during the 119th Congress. But a bill to undo Trump’s tariffs against Canada passed the Senate in a bipartisan manner in October 2025, and any tariff repeals that come before the House would likely get bipartisan support as well.
Trump would almost certainly veto any measure that sought to repeal his tariffs, putting GOP leadership in both chambers in a complicated position.
REPUBLICANS LOOK TO USHER THROUGH VOTER ID LEGISLATION FOR THIRD TIME WITH SAVE AMERICA ACT
Because of Tuesday’s rule failure, any bills tucked into that measure sit at a standstill. The rules committee was scheduled to reconvene on Tuesday night after the votes to pass another measure that would advance the GOP’s voter ID bill, the SAVE America Act.
Leadership could decide to take the bills that were intended for Tuesday’s rule and place them in the measure for the SAVE America Act. But to avoid another floor revolt, the language extending the ban on tariff repeal resolutions would have to be removed.