HOUSE GOP PITCHES PLAN TO FUND GOVERNMENT

Proposal met with criticism, raising shutdown risk

With less than a week before federal spending laws expire, House Speaker Mike Johnson on Saturday unveiled a novel and uncertain plan to temporarily extend funding — but it’s already been rejected by the Senate and White House, increasing the odds of a government shutdown.

Johnson’s proposed stopgap funding bill, called a continuing resolution or CR, would leave funds for different federal agencies to expire at different times, according to three people familiar with the House leader’s plans, requiring Congress to confront multiple deadlines in the coming months or risk repeated partial government shutdowns.

Funds for military and veterans programs, agriculture and food agencies, and the departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development would run through Jan. 19. The remaining government funding — covering the State, Justice, Commerce, Labor and Health and Human Services departments, among others — would expire on Feb. 2.

The plans are fluid and may change as the House considers the legislation, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations between lawmakers. If a new spending law isn’t enacted before the current one expires, the federal government will shut down at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday.

The two-tiered proposal was originally favored by the far-right House Freedom Caucus, whose views often influence Johnson, R-LA., who has been speaker for less than a month. But key members of that group have more recently been skeptical of the plan because it lacks spending cuts.

Rep. Chip Roy, Rtexas, posted on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, “I 100% oppose,” because the bill funds the government at current spending levels.

Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-texas, chairman of the House Budget Committee, told reporters earlier in the week the staggered plan was “politically DOA,” because it did not have Democratic support.

The Democratic-controlled Senate and the Biden administration have already rejected the “laddered” CR, which has never before been attempted.

Sen. Patty Murray, Dwash., chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, on Friday called the staggered funding plan “the craziest, stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of.”

Passage of the measure in the deeply divided House is far from assured. Republican infighting has prevented Johnson from winning votes on longer-term spending bills for individual agencies and programs, and small-government fiscal hawks have said they would not support a CR unless it contained deep spending cuts or staggered budget deadlines for different parts of the government. It’s not clear if other Republicans will support the new plan, though.

The plan would not include any of the billions of dollars President Joe Biden has requested for military aid to Ukraine or for global humanitarian aid to deal with the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. The House earlier this month passed a bill to send $14 billion to Israel for the war in Gaza, but coupled it with cuts to IRS funding that the White House and Senate Democrats have rejected.

Johnson and the GOP have a narrow majority in the House. If more than four Republicans reject the speaker’s proposal, Johnson would need to rely on Democratic votes to extend funding and avert a shutdown. The impasse threatens to send millions of federal workers home without pay while suspending a broad range of government services.