Members of the House of Representatives were sent home early yesterday after disagreements over immigration legislation and the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act led to a stalemate, freezing the House floor and canceling votes for the rest of the week.
With limited time before the August recess, Congress must still pass several major funding bills, including the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and funding for the State Department and national security programs. Despite this, House Republican leaders were forced to cancel the week’s votes after several Republicans joined Democrats in voting 224-198 against moving forward with the remaining legislation.
“It makes no sense for us to stop our very important progress forward from House Republicans, because some Senate Democrats are refusing to do their job,” House Speaker and Representative Mike Johnson (R-LA) told reporters after lawmakers failed to pass the NDAA.
Several of the Republican rebels, including Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), said they voted against proceeding with the week’s funding-related measures after Speaker Johnson failed to bring a border security and immigration bill to the floor by July 4.
“I had no choice but to vote no on today’s rule to proceed to the [NDAA] because House Republican Leadership has once again failed to keep its promises to codify President Trump’s border policies into law, along with other key conservative priorities that remain stalled,” Rep. Roy said.
The canceled votes continue to fuel debate over passing the SAVE America Act, which President Trump has continued to prioritize over other legislation, including by canceling the signing of a major housing bill last week.
In an attempt to ease the mounting pressure to pass the controversial voter-ID bill, Speaker Johnson merged the SAVE America Act with the NDAA. However, Republican allies like Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) said this wasn’t enough.
Rep. Luna, who has been adamant about not voting until the SAVE America Act is passed, had initially proposed attaching the bill to the NDAA rather than merging it as Speaker Johnson tried. She argued that this approach would make it harder for the Senate to remove the voter-ID provisions after the NDAA passed the House.
“If we do it as an amendment, the way that I proposed it, the Senate would need 60 votes to pass the legislation without SAVE America attached,” Rep. Luna said on X. “Meaning it would be harder for them to TAKE it out.”
But for now, House members will leave Capitol Hill for a nearly two-week recess and will return July 13 for the final two weeks of the session.
