With days to go before a Friday government funding deadline, disputes among House Republicans over a top-line spending deal and opposing strategies about how to approach any stopgap bill are threatening to plunge Washington into a partial shutdown.
Such a prospect would mark a significant setback for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who is juggling warring factions within his party as he aims to execute the first major legislative deal of his Speakership.
Efforts to fund the government saw a small sign of relief Friday when Johnson, after enduring days of sharp pushback from hard-line conservatives, said a top-line spending deal he struck with Democrats and the White House “remains” in place — a win for swing-district Republicans and appropriators who have urged Johnson to follow through with the bipartisan agreement.
But even as Johnson stuck by the deal, House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good (R-Va.) insisted he believed Johnson was still “legitimately considering alternatives.”
Congress, nonetheless, will first have to pass a stopgap bill by Friday to buy the body more time to complete the dozen spending bills, appropriators in both parties say. Questions about what form that legislation takes, and how long it lasts, have moved to the front of the disputes between hard-line conservatives and moderates.
Johnson had said in November that he would not support any more short-term stopgaps, and has not explicitly said if he supports a continuing resolution this time around. Asked about a potential stopgap last week, however, the Speaker said he had not ruled anything out.
It’s not only political storms complicating the path to averting a shutdown. Cross-country winter weather over the long weekend and into the week could shuffle travel plans for lawmakers trying to get back to Washington ahead of the funding deadline — a reality that could complicate any GOP-only undertakings in the razor-thin House majority.
As part of their push to get Johnson to renegotiate spending levels and secure conservative policy priorities, hard-liners are urging the Louisiana Republican to move ahead with a long-term continuing resolution — potentially through the rest of fiscal 2024 in September — which would trigger a 1 percent across-the-board cut, a mechanism included in the debt limit deal then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) struck with President Biden last year.
The threat of that cut, long-term stopgap advocates argue, could give Republicans leverage to secure concessions — such as changes to border policy.
“That creates the incentive to actually do the work we’re supposed to do,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, said earlier in the week.
But that patch faces roadblocks.
Johnson asked a group of moderate Republicans if they could support a full-year continuing resolution during a meeting in his office Friday morning, and nearly all lawmakers said no, according to one attendee. He then hinted at a continuing resolution that would last through February or March to buy more time to complete work on all 12 spending bills, the source added.
Democrats, appropriators and GOP defense hawks are also balking at the prospect of a full-year continuing resolution.
“I think their fallback position is really this year-long CR, and no appropriator likes a CR,” said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a top appropriator, noting that a clean stopgap would mean no increase to military spending. “So there’s a lot of pushback, particularly in the House Armed Services [Committee] and with defense appropriators.”
Moderates and appropriators are pushing for a short-term continuing resolution just long enough to buy lawmakers more time to finish the appropriations process, believing it is important to keep up time pressure to quickly pass more funding measures.
Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio), another top appropriator, said after leaving a meeting with Johnson that it would take at least 18 to 21 days for appropriations cardinals to finish their work and hash out policy riders in the funding bills
Other ideas are in the mix, too. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said a stopgap should “just fund the basic components of our government” until new spending is approved. Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) said another concept “being kicked around now” is a “cromnibus,” which would fund government by combining a continuing resolution and a longer-term regular funding omnibus.
The Senate, meanwhile, is not waiting for Johnson to navigate his fractious, slim majority. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) took the first step toward advancing a stopgap bill Thursday, filing cloture on a shell bill that will be the vehicle for a continuing resolution. The chamber is eyeing a vote Tuesday.
But it is unclear how Johnson will handle that move from the Senate amid all the intraparty disputes — and whether he will side with the hard-liners or the appropriators.
With time ticking until the funding deadline, the Speaker has not even explicitly said he will support any kind of stopgap — though he has said that he does not want a shutdown.
Under the two-step deadline structure pushed by Johnson to avoid a massive omnibus funding bill, money for the energy and water programs, military construction, and the departments of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development run out Jan. 19, and funding for the rest of the government expires Feb. 2.
Aside from deliberations over a stopgap bill, hard-line conservatives are demanding that border security be included in any government funding effort, pinning the politically prickly topic to the already convoluted shutdown showdown.
“We’re asking for border security to be a feature of the discussion over government funding, not just something that is resolved within some supplemental Christmas future,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), referring to the ongoing bipartisan negotiations in the Senate on border security to unlock aid for Ukraine. After months of talks, the negotiators have not unveiled a deal.
Some members of the right flank are going as far as to suggest they are willing to shut down the government if the border is not addressed in the funding fight. Asked if he was concerned about the government shutting down after the end of the week, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), a member of the House Freedom Caucus, responded “no.”
“The government’s not doing its job anyway, so whether it’s open or closed, in my view, is largely irrelevant,” he said. “It’s not doing its job.”
Mike Lillis and Aris Folley contributed.