Members of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus orchestrated an unusual play on the House floor during a rare pro forma election session at 5 p.m. that killed, at least for now, a widely popular bill that would as soon as next week.

Reps. Garret Graves, R-La., and Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., successfully gathered the 218 signatures needed for a discharge petition to bypass GOP leaders and push bipartisan legislation that would repeals two longstanding provisions that add Social. Security benefits for certain retirees. They were to make the move Tuesday night by triggering a two-day clock to bring up the special rule for immediate consideration of the bill.

With 330 co-sponsors, including now-Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who was one of the first to apply his name at the start of the 118th Congress, passage of the measure was all but guaranteed. GOP leaders were simply considering bringing it up under the rules suspension, which skips a vote on the rules but requires two-thirds of members present and voting to pass.

Then the Freedom Caucus, which opposes the measure’s $196 billion cost over a decade, stepped in.

What happened: Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., a more or less local member of the Eastern Shore, presided over the pro forma session, which lasted all of seven minutes.

During the brief session, he acknowledged Rep. Bob Good, R-Va. — the former Freedom Caucus chair who lost his primary — for a unanimous consent request. Good’s motion to table the Social Security bill was approved unanimously, with no one else in the chamber objecting.

The effect of putting the bill on the table in this context, according to House rules, has the same effect as defeating a bill on the floor; she is dead for now. Since the discharge petition was actually filed under the rule for consideration, not the bill itself, the rule could still be called for a vote under the discharge procedures, which, if enacted, would remove bill off the table and would allow the vote.

Alternatively, a brand new, identical bill could simply be introduced — as early as Friday’s pro forma session — and that measure put to a vote under suspension of the rules next week.

So it’s not a permanent shutdown of the Social Security bill, but the way the maneuver took place is striking.

Harris’ move to recognize Good runs counter to the speaker’s “announced policies” in the exercise of authority under House rules, which state that such UC requests can only be made after receiving assurances that the majority and minority leadership of both the House and the relevant commissions have no objection.

In fact, before Harris acknowledged Good, House Rep. Jason Smith could be heard on the microphone saying, “The chair will not take the request of the gentleman. The chair cannot grant the gentleman’s request.”

Harris and the lawmaker appear to have had words after the House adjourned, according to congressional procedure expert Kacper Surdy — known as “ringwiss” on the social platform X — who posted an account of the exchange in his X account.

Even if the bill ends up passing the House, the price tag and limited time left in session make the Senate an uphill battle, though it has more than enough supporters in that chamber to overcome a filibuster. It would repeal the “elimination provision” and the “government pension offset,” which reduce Social Security benefits for those who spent part of their careers in state and local government or other positions where their earnings were not subject to social security taxes.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would cost $196 billion over a decade and extend the expiration date of Social Security trust funds by six months. Supporters of the bill argue that six months is not that significant, given that Congress will already have to step in around 2034 and that even the advertised price is misleading.

Rather than wasting taxpayer dollars, the cost is money “taken out of the hard-earned monthly Social Security checks of retired law enforcement officers, teachers, nurses and bus drivers over the next 10 years,” according to the National Police Association. Organizations, which lobbied for the measure.

Graves, the main GOP sponsor, is leaving Congress after redistricting resulted in his district becoming one that heavily favors Democrats. Spanberger is running for governor of Virginia.