MAGA lawmaker dials up Republicans to hold Trump-backed funding deal hostage
The bipartisan deal to end the second federal government shutdown of President Donald Trump's second term just got a curveball, as a far-right MAGA loyalist in the House is calling up her colleagues to try to block the measure.
According to CNN's Sarah Ferris, "Rep. Anna Paulina Luna is phoning fellow Rs today to whip *against* advancing the gov't funding bill unless GOP leaders agree to add her voter ID law, per source familiar; Luna wants Rs to tank the rule vote tomorrow - which would mean a much longer shutdown."
This comes at the same time that House Republican leaders weigh adding a vote on holding Bill and Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress to the measure, as a sweetener for MAGA hardliners to back the deal, Ferris reported.
The shutdown came about as a result of Senate Democrats refusing to sign on to a blank check to increase funding for the Department of Homeland Security after weeks of brutal anti-immigrant crackdowns across the country that resulted in multiple deaths in Minneapolis. Ultimately, with President Donald Trump's reluctant blessing, Senate Republicans agreed to split out DHS funding from the other funding bills and pass only a short-term extension to allow time to negotiate some new oversight reforms to federal immigration enforcement.
This was always a hard sell for House Republicans, who wanted everything passed as is. As of now, Ferris said, the "votes are not there" to pass the measure and end the shutdown.
Luna, despite her MAGA bona fides, has been a thorn in the side of House GOP leadership in the past, and not always from the right. Last year, she joined with Democrats to demand that the House adopt rules to let pregnant women lawmakers vote remotely, causing intense drama.
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