Johnson scores win as conservative rebels end House floor blockade over voter ID bill

House conservatives ended their weeks-long blockade of the House floor Tuesday, handing Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., a key victory after the rebellion brought legislative business to a standstill for nearly a month.

The House successfully passed a procedural vote 215-211, teeing up votes on an appropriations bill funding the State Department, legislation making daylight saving time permanent and a measure seeking to improve veterans' benefits.

Johnson also agreed to pair the State Department funding bill with the SAVE America Act, prompting several conservative holdouts to flip their votes after demanding the House increase pressure on the Senate to pass the stalled measure.

Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., was the lone Republican to oppose the rule, while all Democrats voted "no" during a party-line procedural vote.

The conservatives had blocked all major House legislation since late June in an effort to force GOP leaders to hold floor votes on the Trump-backed SAVE America Act and a sweeping border security bill.

Given House Republicans' slim majority, Johnson could afford to spare just a handful of GOP defections.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who was among the GOP rebels who effectively shut down the chamber to pressure the Senate to pass the SAVE America Act, agreed to unlock the floor after Johnson proposed pairing the election measure with the State Department appropriations bill.

Johnson sought to attach the SAVE America Act to the House's version of an annual defense policy bill before the July 4 recess, but Luna continued the blockade anyway.

"If John Thune strips it out in the Senate, that will be on him and the entire country should be watching what he does," Luna wrote on social media Monday.

Thune, who is supportive of the SAVE America Act, has repeatedly insisted that the votes do not exist in the upper chamber to pass the Trump-backed legislation amid unified opposition from Democrats.

"We need to deliver on codifying border security, deal with the birthright citizenship issue," Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said. "These are all issues people that I represent care about intently and that we've talked about doing, and we need to deliver."

"Making Daylight Saving Time permanent won't matter at all if we don't have election integrity," Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, wrote on social media Monday, referring to the SAVE America Act. "Priorities."

Self voted "yes" during the procedural vote.

"There's a small group of Republicans who are upset at the Senate, as I think all of us are," Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., told Fox News Monday. "But I don't know how ... if you're upset at the Senate, why do you take it out on the conservative Republican agenda in the House?"

"We shouldn't vote on anything else unless it has the SAVE [America] Act, period," Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., said Monday.