Speaker Mike Johnson declined to say Friday whether he will keep the House in over the weekend to pass the Department of Homeland Security funding agreement the Senate approved hours earlier.
“Stay tuned,” the Louisiana Republican told reporters when asked if he was committed to passing the Senate bill, which would fund all of DHS except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.
Johnson said he would talk through options and work the “will of the conference.” But every path before him is fraught.
Johnson, who said he has not decided on how to advance the bill, has several options.
He could move it through a party-line “rule” vote that would require broad GOP support — an unsure bet at this stage as GOP leaders expect a backlash from ultra-conservatives. His alternative would be to expedite passage through a so-called suspension of the rules, which requires a two-thirds majority vote — a move that could enrage GOP hard-liners.
Johnson is also hamstrung by the fact that procedural rules that House members approved at the start of the 119th Congress does not allow the House to vote on suspension bills on Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday.
House Rules Chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) and Rep. Richard Hudson, chair of the House GOP’s campaign fundraising arm, met with the speaker Friday and other senior Republicans to plot a path forward.
Conservative House Republicans are livid that the Senate passed the funding deal absent ICE funding and then left town, also without passing the elections overhaul known as the SAVE America Act. GOP hard-liners are pushing for Johnson to attach SAVE and send it back to the Senate.
“We want to solve these problems as quickly as possible, but we also understand this dangerous gambit about not funding the border, securing the border and the ability to deport criminal illegal aliens is a serious problem,” Johnson said.
Centrist House Republicans are itching for the chamber to pass the deal Friday.
“I hope they do,” Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) said.
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