Newly elected Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) suggested on Sunday he is open to a. short-term stopgap measure to the keep the government funded past the Nov. 17 deadline set under the previous funding measure.
Asked on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” if he would consider a short-term funding bill, Johnson said, “I’ve talked with my colleagues about this in race for the Speaker…I mentioned that I would favor as for purposes of discussion to building consense around if there indeed has to be a stopgap funding measure that we would do that until January 15.”
“And the reason for that is it gets us beyond the end of the year push,” he continued. “And oftentimes, the Senate tries to jam the House and force an omnibus spending bill. We’re not doing that here anymore, we’re having single subject bills in our separate appropriations bills and so pushing that into January I think would assist us in that endeavor.”
Johnson, who was serving his second term as vice chair of the House Republican Conference, won the Speaker’s gavel in a 220-209 party-line vote, capping off over three weeks of turmoil and GOP infighting in the lower chamber.
Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was booted from the top leadership spot earlier this month after he brought to the House floor a “clean” short-term funding bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR) that averted a government shutdown just hours before funding was set to run out in a deal with Democrats.
Johnson said the House’s “first priority,” is getting the government funded, noting one appropriations bill that was passed last week after he was elected Speaker.
Maintaining the House is “working like a well-oiled machine,” that is moving the bills “as quickly as possible,” Johnson said he thinks everyone will “be on board,” on another stop-gap measure if the lower chamber needs more time.
“There may be some conditions put on that [the stopgap measure], perhaps that 1 percent spending cut across the board instead of becoming effective in April,” Johnson said. “Maybe we’d make that Jan. 15 to incentivize the Senate to do their work, but I don’t want to get too deep in the weeds on the details of it because people sort of get lost in all of that, but I’ll tell you that we’re working in earnest to get it done.”
Johnson said Sunday “even the toughest fiscal conservatives,” are ready to “get this job done.”
Johnson’s comments follow part of his promises made in his “Dear Colleague” letter to the Republican conference, where he pushed for the House to pass all 12 of its appropriations measures. In the letter, he said he would propose a stopgap measure that expires on Jan. 15 or April 15 “to ensure the Senate cannot jam the House with a Christmas omnibus.”