House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has plenty of reasons to celebrate after the House passed several high-priority pieces of legislation this week, including an annual defense bill, a budget resolution, and a spending patch.
Johnson successfully corralled enough of his conference to get the $1.14 trillion National Defense Authorization Act, the budget framework for the GOP’s third party-line spending bill, and legislation to curb congressional stock trading on Wednesday.
“This was obviously a consequential week for House Republicans, but it was a very consequential week for the American people,” Johnson told reporters on Wednesday. “We delivered once again.”
“Many of you doubted our success,” Johnson continued. “Many of you standing around me in the gaggle right now said — Let me read you a sample of the headlines. Quote: ‘House Republicans face final week gauntlet.’ Another said, ‘Johnson’s rocky sprint to recess.’ Another said it was ‘Johnson’s make-or-break week.’ Despite nearly every Democrat voting against everything I just read you, House Republicans delivered.”
The votes were narrow victories, however, with a few Republicans opposing the items on the House floor. On the NDAA, seven Republicans opposed the measure, including Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (FL), Tim Burchett (TN), Thomas Massie (KY), Chip Roy (TX), and Eli Crane (AZ). Six Democrats supported the resolution, which helped the bill cross the finish line.
The budget resolution, which would allot money for the Pentagon, farm aid, and election reforms, enjoyed more Republican support. Only Massie and Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) voted against the measure over a lack of cuts to offset the new spending. Rep. Kevin Kiley (I-CA), who caucuses with Republicans, also voted no.
Massie was also the sole GOP no vote on a stopgap measure that would extend government funding until December. The bill passed the House on Tuesday.
On both the NDAA and the stock trading legislation, the House merged the SAVE America Act, the GOP’s flagship voter ID and proof-of-citizenship bill, onto the measures as part of an agreement with Johnson to get support from GOP holdouts.
The heavy lifting Johnson had to do to get those bills passed before the House leaves for its monthlong August recess may ultimately amount to little in the Senate. In the upper chamber, Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) is navigating his own thin majority. Thune has already said the fate of the SAVE America Act in the Senate is a “function of math,” and the legislation does not have the votes.
But Thune also told reporters on Tuesday that the Senate is not likely to take up the House’s effort to fund the government either, and would be working on its own plan to avert a government shutdown at the end of September. The Senate plan will include funding requests from the Trump administration that were not included in the House version.
Thune also pumped the brakes on Johnson’s efforts to begin the reconciliation process by saying the Senate would not move the party-line measure until a government funding bill is passed. He also floated using the House-passed measure as a vehicle to do so.
“It’s a possibility that if necessary, we could pull that budget resolution passed by the House and use it to fund government,” Thune said. “I hope that’s not necessary.”
Johnson said that he spoke with Thune for “about an hour” on Tuesday, and that the two men are working “parallel tracks” and have the same objectives.
“I think he’s looking at all contingencies,” Johnson told reporters when asked about the possibility Thune could hold on to the budget resolution. “We’ll be moving the product through the House and getting it to him, and then we’ll coordinate on the strategy. But I think there’s a lot of game to be played between now and then.”
House Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) told the Washington Examiner that it was a “mistake” to try to link the funding patch and the budget resolution together.
“The two are separate vehicles, separate policies,” Arrington said.
The budget chairman went on to say the reconciliation bill is a “generational opportunity” and that Republicans have a “window prior to the election that’s going to close, and we’re going to miss this if we don’t strike and move quickly like the House. I think it is a mistake to try to link the two together.”
HOUSE REPUBLICANS PASS BUDGET FRAMEWORK FOR $95 BILLION PARTY-LINE SPENDING BILL
A spokesperson for Thune said in a statement that Republicans in the House and Senate are on the same page, dismissing any speculation of a divide between the chambers on a funding patch.
“House and Senate Rs are on the same page on govt funding – on length, desire for clean CR, & motivation to complete our work before the deadline,” Thune spokesman Ryan Wrasse wrote on X. “It’s simply a matter of adding the anomalies that the WH has requested. Bipartisan effort underway to accomplish all of these things.”