House hardliners complicate ending government shutdown as Speaker Johnson moves ahead

“I have been clear: the SAVE Act/Save America Act must be attached to the rule for these appropriations bills and sent back to the Senate for a vote,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., said Sunday in a post to X. “This is my price for a ‘yes’ vote.”

Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., joined Luna on Monday.

“House Republicans shouldn’t let Schumer dictate the terms of government funding,” Burlison said, referring to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “If Dems want to play games, no spending package should come out of the House without the SAVE Act attached — securing American elections must be a non-negotiable.”

President Donald Trump on Monday urged Congress to hurry up and send the spending package to him to sign into law.

“We need to get the Government open, and I hope all Republicans and Democrats will join me in supporting this Bill, and send it to my desk WITHOUT DELAY,” he said in a post to Truth Social, saying the House should pass the Senate version without making additional changes.

The demands present Johnson with a tightrope walk. Without Democratic support, he will hold a minuscule one-vote majority to advance anything along party lines. But adding the SAVE Act to the measure would likely doom it in the Senate, where it would need to be reapproved with at least 60 votes to skirt the filibuster.

Schumer said the bill would be dead on arrival in the Senate if the SAVE Act is added.

“I have said it before and I’ll say it again, the SAVE Act would impose Jim Crow type laws to the entire country and is dead on arrival in the Senate,” Schumer said Monday in a statement. “If House Republicans add the SAVE Act to the bipartisan appropriations package it will lead to another prolonged Trump government shutdown.”

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Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/02/government-shutdown-house-mike-johnson.html