The House of Representatives canceled all votes for the rest of the week after a group of Republicans rebelled on the floor, throwing a wrench in GOP plans. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) slammed the rebellion, saying it was “very disappointing” and rare for Republicans to team up with Democrats like this.
On Tuesday, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) announced there would be no votes until Monday evening after nine Republicans joined Democrats to block a procedural rule. This rule would have killed a bipartisan push to allow proxy voting for lawmakers who become parents. This was a blow to GOP priorities, including a proposal to limit the power of federal judges and a plan to require proof of citizenship to vote.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) had used a rare procedure to force a vote on a resolution allowing new parents or the spouses of new parents to have someone vote for them for 12 weeks. However, Speaker Johnson, who has argued that proxy voting is unconstitutional, opposed the plan. The House Rules Committee, controlled by leadership, inserted language into a procedural rule to block Luna’s effort.
But nine Republicans broke ranks with their party and voted with Democrats, stopping the vote in its tracks. Johnson didn’t hold back his frustration after the vote, saying, “It’s a very disappointing result on the floor there, a handful of Republicans joined with all Democrats to take down a rule. That’s rarely done.”
This defeat meant the House couldn’t proceed with other key votes, such as the No Rogue Rulings Act (which would limit federal judges’ power to issue nationwide injunctions) or the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require proof of citizenship for voter registration.
Johnson didn’t sugarcoat the impact, stating, “Let me just make this clear: That rule being brought down means that we can’t have any further action on the floor this week. That means we will not be voting on the SAVE Act for election integrity. We will not be voting on the rogue judges who are attacking President Trump’s agenda. We will not be taking down these terrible Biden policies with the CRA votes. All that was just wiped off the table. It’s very unfortunate. We’ll regroup and come back, and we’ll have to do this again.”
This sudden shutdown raised questions about how GOP leadership would move forward. Luna had already pushed for the proxy voting legislation to be considered within two days, which would have likely happened Friday. But now, with votes canceled, the earliest it could come up is Monday — and that’s a “fly-in” day, which typically has lower attendance and could complicate things for the proxy vote.
When asked whether leadership would try again to block the resolution, Luna said, “I don’t think they can.”
During the chaos on the House floor, Luna spoke to Johnson, who told her, “I know your heart’s in the right place.” Luna responded, “I hope you have good things to say about this.”
Check out Johnson’s remarks in the clip below from CSPAN:
A handful of Republicans just joined every House Democrat to take down a rule.⁰
This means we can’t take any further action on President Trump’s agenda this week:⁰
No SAVE Act
No vote to address rogue judges attacking Trump
No votes to repeal Biden regulations pic.twitter.com/Fc3FLZTS5Y— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) April 1, 2025
