Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) unveiled his plan to avoid a government shutdown on Saturday, revealing that he has chosen to try and pass a “two-part” continuing resolution where some appropriations bills will be extended to mid-January and the rest into February.
The new approach, which Johnson unveiled on a GOP member call on Saturday, would extend the Agriculture, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and the Energy and Water appropriations bills until Jan. 19 and the remaining bills until Feb. 2.
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The bill does not include any aid to Ukraine or Israel and does not provide for an extension to FISA 702 authorities. However, it does provide for an extension to the expired Farm Bill provisions through September 2024.
The idea behind this two-step approach is that it would create a sense of urgency to pass individual appropriations bills during the time frame and avoid an omnibus or another continuing resolution. So, if it were to pass, Congress would focus on passing the first four appropriations bills before Jan. 19, and then after that, it would focus on getting the remaining bills passed before the February deadline.
But, on the call, Johnson warned that if this plan is unsuccessful because Democrats and the Senate don’t get on board, then he is done with short-term continuing resolutions and will instead move to a year-long measure. This year-long stop-gap measure, Johnson said, would implement an 8% cut across the board to all non-defense spending, which will result in about $40 billion in cuts and defense spending “comes out flat without losing much.”
“If you can’t get the final bills finished under this timeline, with good conservative wins, then we’re just going to go with the most painful version of a full year CR, that will result in large across-the-board non-defense cuts,” Johnson said.
Due to the fact it doesn’t cut government spending, it is likely to garner Democrat support, at least in the Senate, as it is effectively a clean continuing resolution. But, while this will likely help win over Democrats, it does complicate matters for Johnson as he is expected to lose conservative support for the resolution.
Not even an hour after the continuing resolution was unveiled, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) came out against the measure on social media.
“It’s a 100% clean. And I 100% oppose,” Roy posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) also came out against the measure on X, saying she “voted NO to both CRs before and I’m voting NO to this clean CR.”
On the call, Johnson addressed the likely opposition, saying he knows that not “loading this one up with spending cuts and policy riders is a great disappointment to some people” and that he would like to see those himself but did not think if they made those cuts and attached the policy riders, the bill could “get 217 votes on our side.” He added that if he were to add those provisions, “you’re not going to get a single Democratic vote.”
The speaker explained that he couldn’t “devise a CR” that has spending cuts and policy riders that could get 217 votes and that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) “won’t just automatically throw back.”
“As much as I would like to throw a Hail Mary pass at this moment, I don’t think it would be wise in this situation,” he said on the call. “I just don’t think we have a choice but to keep the ball on the ground. We got to run for yards in a cloud of dust and get to the first down.”
In a document obtained by the Washington Examiner, Johnson laid out how, despite the lack of cuts or conservative policy riders, this continuing resolution actually “meets the three primary objectives set forth” by the conference.
It prevents another “irresponsible ‘Christmas omnibus,'” it separates the continuing resolution from the supplemental funding for Ukraine aid, and it “responsibly avoid(s) a government shutdown.”
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Johnson referred to this continuing resolution as “quasi-clean.” But, other than the two-step method, there is little difference between this measure and the one former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) passed earlier this year that led to him getting ousted from the position.
House GOP Leadership plans to have the House Rules Committee consider the bill on Monday and the full House vote on it come Tuesday.
