A bloc of breakaway House Republicans is bringing legislative work in the U.S. House of Representatives to a standstill, blocking bills from moving forward on the floor.
The standoff stems from anger within the group over what they see as the Senate GOP’s unwillingness to advance an election integrity measure known as the Save America Act.
President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly described the Save America Act as his leading legislative priority, urged the House holdouts last week to stop “grandstanding” and warned them against handing Democrats more influence over the legislative agenda.
Even so, on Tuesday, 14 Republicans sided with Democrats to oppose a procedural “rule” that would have allowed the House to resume its stalled legislative business.
Among the major items caught in the dispute are the National Defense Authorization Act, known as the NDAA, and the annual government funding measures, including legislation to fund the State Department.
The impasse comes as House lawmakers face a shrinking window to pass key bills before leaving for the July 4 recess. Senators have already departed Washington for their own two-week break.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has been trying to guide his fractured Republican conference through the dispute, telling reporters Tuesday that he was working to ease tensions and keep the chamber’s agenda on track.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a staunch MAGA-aligned Republican, has emerged as one of the most prominent advocates for passing the SAVE America Act. Earlier Tuesday, she clashed with Rep. Tom Cole, the chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee.
Luna called Cole ‘messy’ in an X post after he told Politico, ‘if she wants to be a senator, she should run for the Senate,’ before adding, ‘Trying to use the House in that way just makes us ineffective — as ineffective as they are.’
Anna Paulina Luna, attends a dinner at the White House in September 2025.
US Representative Lauren Boebert at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on October 25, 2023
Representative Lauren Boebert was another House member who voted to keep the impasse going, noting, ‘I was gonna behave and be a good girl and vote for it, but it was going down anyway. May as well play.’
Jim McGovern, the most senior Democrat on the House Rules committee, spoke out about the GOP chaos during a House floor speech on Tuesday.
‘What on earth are we doing here?’ he said, adding, ‘Every week, wondering if someone’s going to throw a fit, if Donald Trump is going to post something crazy and blow everything up, if Mike Johnson is going to bring something to the floor when he doesn’t have the votes.’
Trump threatened to imperil House Speaker Mike Johnson’s legislative agenda last week when he refused to sign a landmark housing bill unless the SAVE Act was passed.
But the pair met last Thursday and presented a united front, with the President later urging hardline GOP lawmakers to end the ‘grandstanding,’ and appearing to concede that the SAVE Act should not derail other Republican priorities.
President Donald Trump has called the Save America Act his top legislative priority on numerous occasions
Thomas Massie and Lauren Boebert hold a press conference together
Asked about Trump’s wishes to avoid obstructionism on the floor of the House, Luna told the Daily Mail on Sunday, ‘We don’t call it obstruction, we call it how the sausage is made, and as you know, DC legislation is a messy thing, but we always get it done.’
Luna said that an amendment delivering the SAVE Act in full would be attached to the NDAA ‘as just a vehicle to actually get it passed.’
The House has passed the SAVE America Act three times, but it cannot clear the 60-vote filibuster threshold in the US Senate. Even if all 53 Republicans were to vote for the bill, they would not be able to peel off the support of seven Democrats.
