'Classic bait and switch': Marjorie Taylor Greene, Johnson spar over plan to avert shutdown

House Republicans are clashing as House Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to get a bill passed to avoid a government shutdown and Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has emerged as a staunch critic of Johnson's plans.

Greene accused the speaker of engaging in "bait and switch" tactics after Johnson released a statement on Tuesday calling on his fellow Republicans to support his plans to include the SAVE Act in the government budget bill.

The SAVE Act or the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act would require new voters to submit proof of U.S. citizenship in the form of a passport or a birth certificate in order to register to vote.

The act has been criticized as a way to disenfranchise voters with both Senate Democrats and President Joe Biden promising to block the SAVE ACT.

Rep. Greene calls Speaker Johnson's fight fake

Last week, six Republican House members expressed their opposition to the funding bill and Democrats promised to stand against the SAVE Act. This week, Johnson stood strong on his plans calling on his party to vote the bill through.

“I urge all of my colleagues to do what the overwhelming majority of the people of this country rightfully demand and deserve — prevent non-American citizens from voting in American elections,” Johnson said in a press release.

Multiple Republican members of the House went to criticize Johnson’s plans, including Greene. In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Greene called Johnson's fight a fake one.

“Johnson will NOT commit to standing up against the Democrats in a shutdown fight and will allow passage of a clean CR in order to fund the government because he believes a gov shutdown will be blamed on Republicans and will hurt their elections,” Greene said. “Speaker Johnson needs to go to the Democrats, who he has worked with the entire time, to get the votes he needs to do what he is already planning to do.”

She went on to call the Speaker of the House someone with no intention to fight and admitted that if a shutdown were to come from this, it would be too late for the SAVE Act to affect this year's election.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-K.Y., also went on to criticize Johnson's plan as one that does not fund the government responsibly and went on to call it an unserious solution.

The government could face its first shutdown this decade

Congress has until October 1 to pass a funding bill to avoid a government shutdown. The last government shutdown lasted 35 days in late 2018 and early 2019, during the Trump administration.

Government shutdowns don't necessarily mean the whole government stops working. Federal agencies who deem their workers as "essential" keep working but won't get paid immediately. On the other hand, workers who are "nonessential" are furloughed and are not able to work or get paid until the government reopens.

Some parts of the government are fully stopped such as the National Parks Service, which closes all its sites to the public and has its rangers furloughed.

??Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected] and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Marjorie Taylor Greene's Tweet on Government shutdown shows GOP rift