Johnson scores win as conservative rebels end House floor blockade over voter ID bill

By Fox News · Fox News

House conservatives ended their weeks-long blockade of the House floor Tuesday, handing Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., a key victory after the rebellion brought legislative business to a standstill for nearly a month. The House successfully passed a procedural vote 215-211 teeing up votes on an appropriations bill funding the State Department, legislation making daylight saving time permanent and a measure seeking to improve veterans’ benefits. Johnson also agreed to pair the State Department funding bill with the SAVE America Act, prompting several conservative holdouts to flip their votes after demanding the House increase pressure on the Senate to pass the stalled measure. Reps. Randy Fine, R-Fla., was the lone Republican to oppose the rule, while all Democrats voted "no" during the typically party-line procedural vote. The conservatives had blocked all major House legislation since late June in an effort to force GOP leaders to hold floor votes on the Trump-backed SAVE America Act and a sweeping border security bill. Given House Republicans’ slim majority, Johnson could afford to spare just a handful of GOP defections. The speaker has been under mounting pressure to get the House moving again and advance a backlog of legislation ahead of the November midterm elections. GOP leaders are racing to draft the blueprint for a third "big, beautiful" bill in addition to clearing government funding bills before the Sept. 30 deadline and a potential supplemental package covering the price tag of the Iran war. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who was among the GOP rebels that effectively shut down the chamber to pressure the Senate to pass the SAVE America Act, agreed to unlock the floor after Johnson proposed pairing the election measure with the State Department appropriations bill. Johnson sought to attach the SAVE America Act to the House’s version of an annual defense policy bill before the July 4 recess, but Luna continued the blockade anyway. "If John Thune strips it…