Speaker Mike Johnson canceled votes on major bills and sent House lawmakers home for a nearly two-week recess Tuesday after a handful of Republicans blocked a procedural vote on the floor, refusing to allow the chamber to proceed with its own party’s legislative agenda. The vote blocked further floor action, stalling the annual defense authorization bill and appropriations measures ahead of the scheduled Independence Day recess.
The House voted 224-198 against a rule that would have set up further votes, with 14 Republicans siding with Democrats. Johnson conceded Tuesday that he could not regain control and sent members home. The House is not expected to return until mid-July.
The dispute centers on the SAVE America Act, a bill that would require voters to prove their citizenship before registering to vote. Critics say the measure could disenfranchise millions of Americans. Johnson and other GOP leaders have said neither the House nor the Senate has the votes to pass the bill in its current form. Some Republicans, including Luna, have demanded that leaders change congressional policies to push the bill through, though such changes also appear to lack sufficient votes.
“We have the smallest margin in U.S. history. We’re nearing an election,” Johnson told CNN on Tuesday, visibly frustrated by the impasse. “People get very emotional about things, and sometimes they make irrational decisions.”
Luna pushed back against suggestions that she was disrupting the chamber. “I’m not stupid,” she said. “I’m going to fight on the behalf of the American people.”
President Donald Trump has called the SAVE Act his greatest priority. On Monday he described a landmark housing bill that had passed both chambers with broad bipartisan support as “a yawn” compared to the elections bill, and said he would not sign the housing bill until the SAVE Act passes.
Some House Republicans also withheld their votes on the procedural measure over other concerns, including demands for a vote on an immigration bill before recess. It is the second week in a row that GOP leaders have had to abandon their floor agenda.
Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts said on the House floor that the situation had become “unhinged.”
“What on earth are we doing here?” McGovern said. “Every week, wondering if someone’s going to throw a fit, if Donald Trump is going to post something crazy and blow everything up, if Mike Johnson is going to bring something to the floor when he doesn’t have the votes.”
Rep. Thomas Massie, who lost his primary bid to a candidate endorsed by Trump, suggested that some Republicans feel freer to buck leadership because they are past their primaries. “I think people are past their primaries and are getting restless,” Massie said. “There are people who normally wouldn’t vote against the rule and are doing it.”