House Speaker Mike Johnson sent lawmakers home for the July 4 recess two days early on Tuesday after members of his own party sank a key procedural vote, the second week running that Republican infighting has frozen the House floor.
The chamber voted 198-224 to reject a rule that would have merged President Donald Trump's SAVE America Act with the annual defense policy bill, the National Defense Authorization Act. Fourteen Republicans broke ranks, including Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who switched his vote as a procedural move so leaders could revive the measure later.
Johnson had tried to satisfy conservative holdouts by packaging the two bills together through a maneuver known as "MIRVing," which directs separately passed legislation to the Senate as a single bundle.
It was not enough.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) called the plan a "procedural head fake" and said she wanted the voter measure written directly into the defense bill's text. GOP Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Mike Turner of Ohio anchored other pockets of resistance, with Turner pushing to restore pensions for Delphi auto-parts retirees.
Because the House must adopt a rule before debating most bills, the standoff ground the chamber to a halt. Johnson can afford to lose only three Republican votes given his slim majority, and he lashed out at the rebels as the plan crumbled.
"It's frustrating," Johnson told reporters, adding that leaders would regroup and try again after the break. The House returns July 13.
According to Punchbowl News, Johnson has now lost nine rule votes across his roughly three-year tenure, while Democrats under Nancy Pelosi lost none between 2019 and 2023 despite similarly narrow margins. The outlet delivered a blunt verdict in its Wednesday newsletter.
"What good is a House majority if you can’t use it? For the second week in a row, Speaker Mike Johnson was railroaded by his own colleagues in the House Republican Conference," wrote Punchbowl News.