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Johnson quashes farm bill rebellion to pass budget blueprint for reconciliation 2.0

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by Sudiksha Kochi and Emily Brooks - 04/29/26 10:40 PM ET

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by Sudiksha Kochi and Emily Brooks - 04/29/26 10:40 PM ET

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Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Wednesday quashed a rebellion over the farm bill to allow the House to adopt a budget blueprint for a second reconciliation bill that would fund immigration enforcement.

The 215-211-1 party-line vote, with Rep. Kevin Kiley (I-Calif.) voting present, brings Congress one step closer to ending the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown, which has stretched to a record 10 weeks. The reconciliation bill is part of a two-step plan to reopen DHS, with the White House and Senate amping up pressure on the House to adopt a Senate-passed bipartisan bill to fund the rest of the department.

But adoption of the resolution didn’t come easily.

For the second time on Wednesday, leaders held open a vote for hours as they sought to win over holdouts who were furious about GOP leadership’s perceived reversal on the farm bill, and how to handle a measure that would tack on a bill to allow year-round sales of E15 ethanol fuel.

A deal reached after heated negotiations — with some raised voiced that at one point were heard outside the room — would decouple the E15 measure from the farm bill, according to Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.), while also ensuring an up or down vote on the E15 bill.

Earlier in the day, Johnson and his leadership team had successfully convinced more than a dozen holdouts and rebels to vote in favor of a procedural rule teeing up the budget resolution and a bill to reauthorize the nation’s warrantless spy powers. But in an effort to win them over, leaders apparently agreed to punt a vote on a third measure that had been under the same rule: the farm bill.

When votes on the farm bill showed up on the schedule for Wednesday night and Thursday morning, those Republicans erupted.

Most of the gripes center on the E15 provision. Farm-state Republicans have long pushed for the provision, while Republicans from states that produce fossil fuels balked at the provision.

Other lawmakers, like Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), wanted amendments affecting their states to be considered.

Tensions were high as lawmakers tried to hash out a solution. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) reportedly shouted at Johnson and was visibly frustrated on the House floor during the early part of the vote. He later left the Capitol without talking to reporters, before returning to cast a “yes” vote.

Leaders spent hours meeting with members on and off the floor.

Five hours after the vote opened, the holdouts went to the floor to cast the deciding votes.

The road ahead will still be riddled with challenges, as Johnson, who is navigating a razor-thin margin, will need to muster up support for a reconciliation bill.

He can only afford to lose two GOP defections, assuming all members are present and members are unified in opposition. Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) had voted against the first reconciliation bill, dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, last year.

And even before the blow up over the farm bill, a number of conservatives had railed against leadership’s plan to pass the budget resolution.

Hard-line conservatives, doubtful they’ll get another shot at reconciliation, had initially balked at keeping a second reconciliation bill “skinny” — a position championed by Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.).

Rather, members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus had pushed to fully fund DHS in a single bill and to expand the reconciliation package to include priorities like defense spending and health care reforms.

But House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) told reporters Monday night after a GOP conference meeting that there had been “a lot of talk” about a third reconciliation bill — an effort by party leaders to bolster confidence that another opportunity is ahead.

The timeline for the bill will also be tricky, as DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin warned money for employees is set to run out by the first week of May. President Trump said he wants the bill on his desk by June 1.

Passage of the resolution raises questions about the House’s plan for a bipartisan Senate bill to fund the rest of DHS. House Republicans have resisted passing that bill and sat on it for weeks as they wanted to secure funding for immigration enforcement and border patrol first — but Johnson has been getting increasing pressure from the White House and Senate to pass it as the department is running out of pots of money to tap to pay employees.

Johnson told CNN’s Manu Raju on Wednesday that he had concerns about some of the language in that bill, but that he is “not defying the White House.”

“I just got off the phone with the president, okay?” Johnson