Government shutdown in the hands of Democrats due to House GOP division

The civil war among Republican representatives has left the possibility of avoiding the government shutdown next Sept. 30 in the hands of Democratic lawmakers. After conservative lawmakers on the Rules Committee blocked the passage of Mike Johnson's new plan from reaching a floor vote, House GOP leaders opted to force the vote by suspending the rules, a move that requires two-thirds support of the floor for the proposal to move forward.

GOP Congressman Thomas Massie (who voted in favor of the previous initiative last week) was clear in his rejection of the current proposal from the House speaker, which he considered a gimmick to force lawmakers to vote again, and without time, on Christmas Eve on a much more ambitious government funding bill:

"This evening, I described how the Speaker is using the CR to set up a government funding crisis the week before Christmas. Why Christmas? So he can pressure Members to vote for a bill they haven’t read, by using their desire to see their families on Christmas Eve against them."

Mike Johnson's tortuous path to avoid government shutdown

After delaying a few days the vote on his plan to get the number of votes needed among members of his party and seeing the proposal presented finally fall with the rejection of 14 Republicans and all Democrats a week ago, Johnson's latest initiative, now not linked to the Save Act, continues to generate rejection among many Republicans and leaves its approval in the hands of Blue Party congressmen.

Especially since, in order to bring it to the floor, it has been forced to resort to suspension of the rules following the Rules Committee's rejection. Now, the approval of the continuing resolution that will give air in the form of dollars to the Government, remains in the hands of the Democratic bench, since Johnson's pirouette requires two-thirds of the Lower House to go ahead.