Speaker Mike Johnson suffered one other humiliating political defeat by the hands of his personal celebration on Thursday when he was pressured to desert plans to move a veterans benefits bill designed to be one of many GOP’s large legislative wins earlier than the midterms.
Just minutes earlier than the bill was slated to come back to the ground, Johnson and his staff had been pressured to drag it from the schedule as greater than a half-dozen holdouts refused to again the measure.
The bill has been in hassle for weeks. It’s been a serious supply of stress within the army neighborhood, with highly effective teams just like the Veterans of Foreign Wars and Disabled American Veterans against the measure as a result of it reduces sure incapacity protection — whereas others, just like the American Legion, have backed it.
But Johnson and his deputies determined to go forward with the vote. On Thursday, these issues continued and Johnson tried to salvage it on the eleventh hour, holding a gathering simply off the ground with a gaggle of GOP moderates who had issues in regards to the bill however they might not get the votes wanted.
The defeat for Johnson is the newest in a string of issues for management. Only days earlier, Johnson had struck a truce with GOP hardliners to reopen the ground after they’d effectively seized control and prevented the speaker from moving key bills for two weeks. Now, they’re leaving Washington on Thursday with out a clear path ahead on the veteran benefits bill.
Those GOP centrists, amongst others, have opposed one piece of the sprawling measure — the plan to pay for expanded benefits by limiting payouts for future recipients’ incapacity claims. Critics say it could successfully eradicate compensation for tinnitus and sleep apnea from the federal government’s checklist of standalone disabilities to assist pay for the enlargement in different benefits.
And contained in the room, the dialog grew so tense that one member, Rep. Zach Nunn, advised his colleague, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, to cease speaking mid-conversation, based on two sources within the room. Luna — who has drawn the ire of the GOP for holding up the ground in latest weeks over an unrelated election bill — had been explaining why she wasn’t backing down from calling for the bill to be despatched again to the committee stage.
Luna ended up leaving the assembly, the sources mentioned.
“As a combat vet, I’ve worked with veterans to deliver. APL walked in late, threw a temper tantrum, and then left. She’s interested in clicks, we’re working for disabled vets, military spouses, and suicide prevention — that’s what matters,” Nunn mentioned in a press release to NCS.
Luna later defined that she wouldn’t vote for the veterans bill as a result of it took away sure medical benefits for service members.
“I’m not going to vote for it because I think that it’s bad to cut sleep apnea and also tinnitus and then bundle it with other things. I don’t think that it makes sense,” Luna mentioned.
Luna posted to X Thursday afternoon, “As a veteran, and more importantly as the representative of a veteran-heavy district, I will never vote to cut veterans’ benefits, nor will I vote to prevent current service members from filing claims in the future. Today, I found myself at the center of an unhinged meltdown and was told to ‘stop talking’ simply for pointing out how wrong it is to cut veterans’ benefits.”
Another one of many GOP defectors, Rep. Jeff Van Drew, was clear he wouldn’t change his thoughts: “I’m not changing my vote.”
“I love the bill 90% of it, but I don’t like dripping away benefits for veterans to help other veterans. You don’t separate people out that way and you also make sure veterans groups should be behind us,” Van Drew mentioned.
The collapse of the veterans bill is a foul omen for Johnson in one in every of his ultimate weeks earlier than the House’s prolonged August recess, the place he and his staff try to muscle by a massive $95 billion emergency funding bill, most of which might go to the Pentagon.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune warned Thursday that the House GOP effort to move a price range bill for protection, agriculture and state grants to advertise voter ID necessities carries strategic dangers.
The laws would transfer by a posh course of generally known as price range reconciliation that may permit the bill to move within the Senate with out Democratic votes. But Thune cautioned the distinctive guidelines governing passage of the bill within the Senate would possibly topic Republicans to a slew of politically delicate votes near the midterm elections and permit Democrats to petition the Senate parliamentarian to strike key GOP priorities from the bill.
“It’s a risky proposition,” Thune advised reporters. “Is the juice worth the squeeze?”
NCS’s Ted Barrett contributed
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