Congress returns this week to face a harrowing reality with a deadline to fund the government Friday at midnight and little progress so far to do so. And for newly minted Speaker Mike Johnson, the fight ahead marks a major test – and one that foretold his predecessor’s loss of the gavel.
The two chambers have until week’s end to come to an agreement to keep the government funded, aiming to push back the deadline with a stopgap measure like they did at the end of September. But exactly what that measure, known as a continuing resolution, looks like remains to be seen, as the House and Senate forge ahead in different directions, complicating the path to keep the lights on.
Johnson – fresh off being elected to the role following weeks of intraparty turmoil – outlined an ambitious schedule to pass the remaining full-year spending bills through the chamber in recent weeks, while acknowledging that a short-term measure would likely be necessary. Still, until Saturday, he hadn’t outlined what that CR would look like, giving the chamber little time to work out the kinks.
Johnson’s proposed CR would keep the government funded at current levels into the new year, though it would do so on two different timelines. While some of the government agencies would be funded until Jan. 19, others would be funded until Feb. 2, giving lawmakers time to negotiate the spending bills while also avoiding a pre-holiday funding deadline that would likely lead to an omnibus package in the 11th hour that House Republicans vehemently oppose.
“This two-step continuing resolution is a necessary bill to place House Republicans in the best position to fight for conservative victories,” Johnson said in a social media post on Saturday.
While Johnson’s measure would cater to his party when it comes to process, the continuing resolution doesn’t include the steep spending cuts that conservatives have eyed. Instead, to the frustration of a handful of House Republicans who have already expressed opposition to the measure, it extends current funding levels set under former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. And whether his party’s reliable detractors on the right flank will go for it more broadly remains to be seen.
It’s nearly the same set of circumstances that tested former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy just months ago – and precipitated his ouster, posing a major test for the new speaker.
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The general thinking has been that for Johnson, who became the GOP’s fourth nominee for the job in a weekslong standoff to elect a replacement after McCarthy’s ouster, there’s more goodwill within the conference and a willingness to stay united. Even so, for Johnson, the honeymoon period after he was unanimously elected speaker seemed to be coming to an end last week, as leadership had to pull votes on two full-year spending bills at the last minute amid disagreement within the party.
The two bills, which were among the least controversial of the remaining five funding measures, faced opposition from several sides. Adding to the difficulty is the reality that the bills, which are punctuated with conservative social policies and have been marked up well below the levels that the Senate is pursuing with their full-year spending measures, will likely be subject to major changes, leading less extreme Republicans to voice frustration about taking votes on controversial measures that have little chance of becoming law.
Adding to Johnson’s difficulties was a commitment from House Democrats to oppose anything but a clean continuing resolution. With a razor-thin majority in the House, nearly all Republicans have to stick together to pass legislation. And without any backing from Democrats to cushion the Republican margins, that task grows even harder.
But some Democrats appeared open to Johnson’s stopgap measure, which is effectively a clean continuing resolution, despite its unusual two-step deadlines that some have dubbed a “ladder” CR.
“I don’t like this laddered CR approach. It looks gimmicky to me, but I’m open to what the House is talking about,” Sen. Chris Murphy, Connecticut Democrat, told NBC on Sunday. “The priority has to be keeping the government open.”
Even so, the White House came out in opposition to the measure, calling it an “unserious proposal” that wastes time. And it’s not clear if the Senate would even consider it should the measure pass the House.
Accordingly, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer began taking matters into his own hands last week, filing cloture on a bill that would become a vehicle for a continuing resolution to keep the government funded. Schumer pursued a similar strategy in September as House leadership dragged its feet on a bipartisan approach to keeping the government funded and shutdown anxieties grew. But lawmakers ultimately coalesced around a last-minute House continuing resolution that angered House conservatives and dealt McCarthy his final blow.
How aid for Israel, Ukraine and border security funding fit into Congress’ final funding agreement remains to be seen. The House passed an aid package to Israel in recent weeks, but the White House has advocated for the aid to be linked to Ukraine funds. And a feature of the House package to cut spending to the IRS to offset the cost is a nonstarter in the Senate. The outcome could be a repeat of the September shutdown talks, when Ukraine aid and border security proposals played key roles in the deliberations, though they were both ultimately scrapped as the funding fight came down to the wire.
