Speaker Johnson will be forced to rely on votes from Democrats in the coming days to keep the government open through the November election after House conservatives tanked his original bill, which included steeper cuts and legislation that would create a new requirement that individuals show proof of citizenship when registering to vote. Mr. Johnson and his leadership team are ignoring President Trump’s demand that the government be shut down if the voter registration bill is not passed. 

On Sunday, Mr. Johnson introduced a spending bill — known as a continuing resolution — that would extend government funding until December 20. It includes a fully funded disaster relief fund and additional money for the Secret Service in the wake of the two attempts on President Trump’s life.

“While this is not the solution any of us prefer, it is the most prudent path forward under the present circumstances,” Mr. Johnson wrote to his colleagues on Sunday. He said that a government shutdown would be “political malpractice” less than 40 days from this year’s “fateful election.” In his letter, he included a link to polling that shows likely voters being strongly opposed to any shutdown. 

Members of Mr. Johnson’s own conference were clearly unhappy that the speaker was unable to get any conservative wins in his negotiations with the Senate, even though it was conservative members themselves who took the wind out of the speaker’s sails by tanking his first package. 

A member from Georgia who voted for Mr. Johnson’s spending bill, Congressman Mike Collins, a member from Georgia who voted for Mr. Johnson’s spending bill, posted a meme video on X on Monday morning showing House Republicans handing everything over to Senator Schumer for nothing in return. 

Mr. Johnson had originally planned to put a funding bill on the floor that kept the government open through March of next year, and he thought that attaching the bill known as the SAVE Act — which would require proof of citizenship when registering to vote — would be enough to win over some of his most conservative members. 

The former president took to Truth Social before the first spending bill vote to say that the government should be shut down if the SAVE Act, or legislation like it, was not included. 

“If Republicans in the House, and Senate, don’t get absolute assurances on Election Security, THEY SHOULD, IN NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM, GO FORWARD WITH A CONTINUING RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET,” Trump wrote wrote on Tuesday. “THE DEMOCRATS ARE TRYING TO ‘STUFF’ VOTER REGISTRATIONS WITH ILLEGAL ALIENS. DON’T LET IT HAPPEN — CLOSE IT DOWN!!!”

Ignoring Trump’s demand for the SAVE Act, enough conservatives voted with the overwhelming majority of Democrats to kill Mr. Johnson’s funding deal, sending him back to square one. The final vote was 202 in favor and 220 opposed, with 14 Republicans voting against the bill. 

His new plan is certain to face even stiffer opposition this time around, given that it does not include the SAVE Act and mandates higher funding levels. The author of the SAVE Act, Congressman Chip Roy, urged his colleagues to swallow the original spending plan in order to secure this year’s election, but warned that if the SAVE Act was not passed, he would be in favor of a shutdown. 

“I’m certainly comfortable with fighting and having a shutdown to force the question on whether or not we’re going to fund government at the right levels, which means cutting spending and making sure that we ensure that only citizens vote,” Mr. Roy told reporters Wednesday.