House Defeats Mike Johnson’s Spending Bill as Government Shutdown Looms

Both Republicans and Democrats opposed the stopgap funding bill, which was tied to new rules requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote.

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Speaker Mike Johnson plunged ahead with a short-term spending plan on Wednesday, despite bipartisan opposition.

The House on Wednesday defeated a $1.6 trillion stopgap spending bill to extend current government funding into March and impose new proof-of-citizenship requirements on voter registration, as Republicans and Democrats alike rejected Speaker Mike Johnson’s proposal to avert a shutdown at the end of the month.

The bipartisan repudiation was entirely expected after several Republicans had made clear they would not back the spending plan and Democrats almost uniformly opposed the voting-registration proposal. The vote was 220 to 202, with 14 Republicans joining all but three Democrats in opposition. Two Republicans voted present.

Even with a Sept. 30 deadline approaching to fund the government, Mr. Johnson had pulled the plug on the vote last week as it became clear that his plan would not have the necessary support. But the speaker, under pressure from former President Donald J. Trump and the hard right to insist on the proposal, plunged ahead on Wednesday anyway, working to show members of his party that he was willing to fight for their principles.

“Congress has an immediate obligation to do two things: responsibly fund the federal government and ensure the security of our elections,” said Mr. Johnson, who has made the voting registration bill a personal crusade. He said voting by just a few noncitizens “can throw an election. They can throw the majority of the House. It could affect the presidential race. It’s very, very serious stuff.”

In the hours before the vote, Mr. Trump posted on social media that if Republicans did not get “every ounce” of the citizenship verification bill, they should not agree to a measure to keep government funding flowing “in any way, shape, or form.” He charged, baselessly, that Democrats were “registering Illegal Voters by the TENS OF THOUSANDS, as we speak,” adding, “They will be voting in the 2024 Presidential Election.”

There is no evidence of that happening, and state audits and data compiled by groups across the political spectrum have found no indication that noncitizens are voting in large numbers.

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