The hardline MAGA wing of the House Republican caucus has once again forced House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) into a difficult spot, one that has relegated his role to “something like a triage nurse,” Punchbowl News reported, despite being arguably the most powerful lawmaker in Washington and third in line to the presidency.
Johnson ultimately caved Monday to a demand from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) to attach the SAVE Act – President Donald Trump’s controversial voter ID bill – to the annual defense spending bill. While the SAVE Act has no path forward in the Senate according to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), Luna had threatened to stall House proceedings unless her demand was met.
“Speaker Mike Johnson’s job these days is something like a triage nurse. His function almost every day in the Capitol is to stop the bleeding in the House Republican Conference,” Punchbowl News’ report reads.
“Don’t get us wrong: Johnson’s play was creative. There’s very little chance that House GOP leaders would’ve been able to advance a rule without this move. But it does little to mask the larger internal problems that House Republicans have with their agenda for the rest of 2026.”
Punchbowl News described Johnson’s decision to concede to Luna’s demand as “yet another Band-Aid” that, at most, “should keep the floor open for this week.” For Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), however, the move was a wasted effort to appease the speaker’s hard-right flank, and a fruitless one at that.
“This really accomplishes nothing. The Senate has already moved to bring their own [defense spending] bill to the floor that doesn’t have this in it, they’ve made it clear they’re not going to take this up,” McGovern said, according to Punchbowl News.
“I don’t know what Rep. Luna thinks. She’s accomplished nothing. … If we come to the floor tomorrow at noon and actually bring this up, then Luna was bought off, I guess, or this satisfied her. I don’t know how it would, because again this does nothing to force the Senate to accept this.”