The bill that pays the troops is stalled, and the Speaker of the House has named a culprit. Asked why the annual defense authorization collapsed on his floor Tuesday night, Mike Johnson pointed across the Capitol: "It makes no sense for us to stop our very important progress forward from House Republicans, because some Senate Democrats are refusing to do their job." [1]
THE CLAIM "It makes no sense for us to stop our very important progress forward from House Republicans, because some Senate Democrats are refusing to do their job."
- Speaker Mike Johnson, to reporters at the Capitol, June 30 [1]
This is an after-action report, and after-action reports start with the roll call. The vote that stopped the defense bill happened in the House of Representatives, a chamber Republicans control. The procedural rule to bring it to the floor failed 198 to 224, with 14 Republicans voting no. [2][3] Rules pass on majority-party votes; no Democrat was needed to kill this one, and no Senate Democrat cast a vote in it. The House then canceled the rest of the week and left for recess until July 13, with the bill on the floor where it fell. [1]
What the no votes wanted
The rebels, led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, wanted the SAVE America Act - a proof-of-citizenship elections bill - locked into must-pass legislation, and voted down their own party's defense bill to force it. [2] The Speaker's version of events is that Senate Democrats made this necessary by refusing to take up the elections bill.
The Senate is also run by Republicans. The elections bill has never had more than 53 votes there, seven short of the 60 it needs, and when Senate Republicans tried the same attach-it-to-something-must-pass play on June 4, the vote failed 48 to 50 - with four Republicans, including Mitch McConnell, joining every Democrat to block it. [4][5] Republican Sen. Thom Tillis calls passing it an "impossible task." [5] Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican no vote on the rule, put the whole frame in one sentence: "I think it's ironic that we control the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the White House and we're yelling 'election fraud.'" [5]
Data
| Most votes the SAVE Act has ever had | 53 votes |
|---|---|
| 60 votes needed to pass | 60 votes |
What it costs while it sits
The stalled bill authorizes $1.15 trillion, and inside it is the pay raise: 7 percent for the most junior enlisted ranks, 6 percent for mid-grades, 5 percent above that. [6] A junior soldier's base pay today starts at $2,225.70 a month; for an E-4 with a few years in, the stalled raise is worth roughly $300 a month. [6][7] Every week of recess is a week that raise does not move.
THE RECEIPTS
- 198-224: the rule died in a Republican-run House, with 14 Republican no votes. [2][3]
- 48-50: four Senate Republicans, McConnell among them, joined all Democrats to block the SAVE Act attach play on June 4. [4]
- 53 votes: the most the SAVE Act has ever had in the Senate, against the 60 it needs. [5]
- 7 percent: the junior-enlisted raise now parked until at least July 13. [6]
The honest version of the other side
Senate Democrats do oppose the SAVE America Act, uniformly, and they say so in the open. If the Speaker had said "Democrats will not pass our elections bill," that would be true. What he said instead is that the defense bill stopped because of them. The defense bill stopped because 14 members of his own conference voted to stop it, in service of a demand his own party's Senate already rejected. His fellow Republican Blake Moore described the scene from inside: "The irony is wild. This is a debate on the Senate filibuster, while filibustering ourselves." [1]
THE BOTTOM LINE The defense bill died in a chamber Republicans control, on Republican votes, over a demand four Senate Republicans helped block. The troops' raise is the collateral. The blame went somewhere else.
The after-action report is short: the wound was self-inflicted, and the people who will feel it first are the ones the bill was written to pay. [6][7]
