The House Freedom Caucus is threatening to oust Speaker of the House Mike Johnson after his "handshake deal" with Democrats mimicked the same behavior that got his predecessor, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, tossed from the speakership.
“He would have never got the job doing the things that he’s doing right now. No way. No one would have got the job doing this,” Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) told USA TODAY, adding the deal was “certainly not the plan that was communicated” before Johnson was elected speaker.
Over the weekend, Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer came to an agreement for caps on federal spending for the next fiscal year at $1.59 trillion along with a $69 billion side deal for non-defense spending.
It's the side deal that has enraged conservatives. It's exactly the kind of deal that the Freedom Caucus warned Johnson about before he took office.
It’s even worse than we thought.
— House Freedom Caucus (@freedomcaucus) January 7, 2024
Don’t believe the spin. Once you break through typical Washington math, the true total programmatic spending level is $1.658 trillion — not $1.59 trillion.
This is total failure. https://t.co/QBok5lpa6E
It gets worse for Johnson. The first deadline to pass a budget to keep the government running falls on January 19 and the four appropriation bills that need to be passed aren't even close to being ready.
Johnson is going to have to do something he swore he'd never do; pass a Continuing Resolution to keep the government running. The other seven appropriation bills will almost certainly not be ready by February 2. That's the second deadline agreed to in November and progress on making that deadline is also lagging.
The Number Two Republican in the Senate, John Thune (R-S.D.), also believes a CR will be necessary.
“We ought to allow some time to do some work on the other bills and, if there is a CR, maybe in the March timeframe,” Thune told reporters when asked if a CR would be needed.
Thune’s comments supporting a continuing resolution could set up a clash with Speaker Mike Johnson and the Republican-controlled House. Last November, the Louisiana Republican pledged to no longer support short term such stopgap measures.
“I’m done with short term CRs,” Johnson said at the time.
House Republican leaders are not ready to commit to a stopgap spending bill but did bring up the possibility during a closed-door meeting on Tuesday, according to GOP sources familiar with the conversation.
It’s a sign that Johnson may be softening his stance as the next government funding deadline fast approaches and Congress has yet to pass a single yearlong spending bill. Johnson also told members during the closed-door leadership meeting that he does not want a government shutdown, sources said.
“Time is so compressed and the deadline so short that I’m afraid we’re looking at another short-term continuing resolution,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) in an interview Wednesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
Thune is wondering aloud why the Senate hasn't been working on some of the bills the House has sent across the Capitol. “I would at least put some of the bills on the floor. I don’t know what Schumer is waiting for,” he said. “We’re wasting time here that we could be using to have a regular appropriations process.”
That can only happen when both the Congress and the Senate are committed to a "regular" appropriations process.
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Johnson said he's going to talk to Donald Trump about the situation. He wants to “talk him through the details” of the budget negotiations.
“He and I have a very close relationship,” Johnson said Wednesday on “The Hugh Hewitt Show.” “He’s been an enthusiastic supporter of my leadership here, and I expect he’ll be doing that again.”
Johnson is being pressured to add some conservative culture issues to some of the spending bills. Since there is no chance they will ever pass, debating them is a waste of time and only makes a CR inevitable.
