The House of Representatives on Wednesday scuttled House Speaker Mike Johnson's partisan plan to temporarily fund the government, paired with a proposal aimed at curbing noncitizen voting, with less than two weeks left to avert a government shutdown.

What You Need To Know

  • The House on Wednesday rejected House Speaker Mike Johnson's partisan plan to temporarily fund the government

  • The bill was paired with a Republican-backed proposal aimed at curbing noncitizen voting

  • More than a dozen Republicans joined Democrats to oppose the measure

  • The path forward to avert a partial government shutdown when the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1 is unclear

The measure failed in a 202-220 vote, with more than a dozen Republicans joining Democrats to oppose the measure. Two Republican lawmakers, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., voted "present," and three Democrats, Reps. Jared Golden, D-Maine, Don Davis, D-N.C., and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., broke ranks to support it.

The path forward to avert a partial government shutdown when the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1 is unclear.. Johnson told repoters at the Capitol after the vote Wednesday that he was "very disappointed" the bill didn't pass, and implied he'd huddle with lawmakers to figure out an alternative plan, but did not provide details on what that might look like.

"The play that we ran tonight was the right play," Johnson said. "It’s the right fight for the American people, it's the one that they demand and deserve ... Now we go back to the playbook, draw up another play."

Johnson was forced to pull a scheduled vote on the measure last week due to opposition from both Democrats and members of his own party.

The GOP-backed Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which already passed the House earlier this year largely along party lines, would require proof of U.S. citizenship in order to register to vote in federal elections. But currently, only U.S. citizens are allowed to vote in federal elections, and state data shows that noncitizen voting is very rare.

Opponents say that the bill disenfranchises those who do not have documentation, such as a passport or birth certificate, readily available when registering to vote. 

The bill was championed by Johnson and former President Donald Trump, who urged Republicans not to support any measure to avert a shutdown unless it's included.

"If Republicans don’t get the SAVE Act, and every ounce of it, they should not agree to a Continuing Resolution in any way, shape, or form," Trump wrote on social media hours before the vote, baselessly alleging that Democrats are registering tens of thousands of noncitizens to vote. "A Vote must happen BEFORE the Election, not AFTER the Election when it is too late. BE SMART, REPUBLICANS, YOU’VE BEEN PUSHED AROUND LONG ENOUGH BY THE DEMOCRATS. DON’T LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN."

Democrats, meanwhile, have called the bill a nonstarter and urged Republicans to negotiate in a bipartisan manner.

"Speaker Johnson must reject the most extreme voices in his party and quickly move toward a four corners agreement," said House Democratic Caucus chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., said Wednesday morning.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Tuesday morning that Johnson’s plan “makes clear he’s running into a dead end.”

“We must have a bipartisan plan instead,” Schumer declared on the Senate floor. “The speaker’s CR is too unworkable. I urge him to drop his plan [and] work together to reach a bipartisan agreement with the other leaders … as well as the White House. We do not have time to spare.”

Senate Republicans appeared open to a “Plan B” if the House vote fails on Wednesday, Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters on Tuesday.

Thune told reporters they wanted to give his House GOP “some space” to try to figure it out, but added, “If they don't get something by the end of the week, the game changes.”

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., also agreed that "we first have to wait and see what the House sends us," but warned that a shutdown would be "beyond stupid" so close to Novembr's election.

"The one thing you cannot have is a government shutdown," the Kentucky Republican said Tuesday. "It would be politically beyond stupid for us to do that right before the election, because certainly we'd get the blame."