House Speaker Johnson Overturns Trump Voting Rules on Government Funding Bill

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday announced a new temporary government funding proposal with key changes to the original bill he introduced earlier this month, going against former President Donald Trump's wishes and offering some concessions to Democrats.

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

In a letter to colleagues on Sunday, Johnson said the “very narrow and simple” proposal would include “only the extensions absolutely necessary” to avoid a government shutdown.

Republicans and Democrats in Congress have eight days to reach an agreement on funding the government. If no deal is reached, the government will enter a partial shutdown on Oct. 1 at 12:01 a.m. ET, just a month before the November elections when it will be harder for either party to control the White House and Congress.

“While this is not the solution that any of us would prefer, it is the wisest path forward under the current circumstances,” Johnson wrote in the letter. “As history has taught us and current polls confirm, shutting down the government less than 40 days before a crucial election would be an act of political malpractice.”

The new bill is likely to reach the House of Representatives by Wednesday, according to House Republican aides.

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

The previous version of Johnson’s bill was supposed to fund the government through March 2025, meaning funding levels were already set for the newly elected president and Congress. It also came with the SAVE Act.

Trump favored this iteration of the spending order, writing on Truth Social earlier this month that if Republicans did not get absolute assurances about election security, they should not hesitate to shut down the government.

But the six-month stopgap funding bill that came with the SAVE Act had trouble getting off the ground among House Republicans. Some GOP lawmakers were against any idea of ​​funding the government on a temporary basis. Others objected to specific funding allocations, which would have been capped at six months if the bill had passed.

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

“Since we have not reached the target line, a Plan B is now required,” Johnson wrote to colleagues in the letter sent on Sunday.

Democrats also pledged to vote against the six-month bill along with the SAVE Act, meaning the proposal would have been defeated once it reached the Democratic-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 Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have called for a short-term proposal without associated bills so that the newly elected governing body can start with a blank slate in January.

Schumer welcomed the changes proposed by the House Speaker.

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

“Now that the GOP’s Make America Great Again bill has failed, it’s clear that only a bipartisan budget bill will keep the government open. The red knot that the Make America Great Again movement has tied around the Republican Party is now untied,” he added.

Johnson’s concessions to Democrats could affect his position as House speaker. His predecessor, former California Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy, became the first House speaker to be removed from office after he struck a deal with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown in October 2023.