Days from a government shutdown Congress is racing to strike a deal. But aid for Ukraine is stalled
The House returned to Washington Wednesday with the goal of averting a partial government shutdown – a looming deadline that has become routine in the past several months as the notoriously fractious House Republicans conference has fought against a Democratic Senate and the White House.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), their nascent leader who has spent the past four months learning on the job while being pulled by opposite poles in his party, is once again days away from a government shutdown and staring down competing demands from his members. The conference is split almost down the middle on two pressing issues that Senate leaders and President Biden largely agree on: how to fund the government and sending aid to foreign democracies, particularly Ukraine.
As he faces two government shutdown deadlines over the next 10 days and pressure from all corners to aid Ukraine, Johnson has to weigh warring factors to either find consensus with bipartisan Senate leaders and the White House or cave to the farright’s wishes to walk away from negotiations. The former could cost him his job.
But the lack of unity among House Republicans, whose first year in the majority was defined by their inability to agree on must-address issues, has weakened Johnson’s hand as he negotiates without a cohesive message of conservative demands. And many GOP lawmakers and aides said Johnson’s thinking is further complicated as he struggles to marry his own hard line conservative ideology with his desire to govern.
While Republican lawmakers acknowledge the unworkable position Johnson is in, concerns about Johnson’s “listen, then decide” approach have also amplified over the past month, leaving the conference feeling united in at least one thing: itsdisillusionment about a path forward.
“I have no confidence this ends well for House GOP,” said one House Republican, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about feelings within the conference.
The speaker’s allies argue that Johnson was put in an impossible position to lead a divided conference, a job he sought, and that the conference should unite behind him to strengthen his hands in negotiations. Johnson himself has been open publicly and in closed-door meetings with Republicans that there is only so much their twoseat majority can do if they remain fractured.
Complicating Johnson’s fate are the taunts from some lawmakers who have floated ousting him from the speakership- a move that would descend the House into further chaos, as it did last year when Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was removed. Detractors have decried another possible stopgap measure – the third in four months – that would extend current funding levels while giving appropriators more time to finish fiscal year funding bills, even though the group has contributed to the delay by moving the goal posts on their demands. They alsoare vehemently opposed to putting a Ukraine funding bill on the floor for a vote.
Four government agencies are set to lose funding at the end of the day Friday if Congress does not pass either full-year funding bills or a stopgap funding measure. The other eight funding packages – covering about 80 percent of federal agencies – run out a week later. Finally completing this fiscal year’s appropriation process would also avert automatic cuts in government spendingthat would go into effect at the end of
April, which all Republican factions besides the far-right want to avoid.
Johnson has agreed with appropriators and other Congressional leaders that they need to buy more time to pass more funding bills through each chamber, proposing to Democrats late Tuesday the option to extend Friday’s deadline by a week and the March 8 deadline by two weeks, according to two people familiar with the offer. It is contingent on Democrats agreeing to pass half of the 12 appropriations bills by next week, allowing for more time to work through more controversial legislation as Johnson aims to ensure this is the last funding extension. Democrats appear open to agreeing to Johnson’s conditions, according to people familiar with the negotiations.
But members of the House Freedom Caucus are angry withJohnson for trying to sell the previous stopgap measure as necessary to negotiate a number of conservative fundingwins, only to tell lawmakers in a call last week to lower their expectations.
“I don’t think anybody on this call thinks that we’re going to be able to use the appropriations process to fundamentally remake major areas of policy,” Johnson told members on a Friday eveningcall,according to multiple people familiar with his comments. “If you’re expecting a lot of home runs and grand slams here, I admit you’ll be disappointed.”
In a lengthy thread on X that reverberated across the GOP conference, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.) accused Johnson of having “NO PLAN TO FIGHT” after promising to do so if appropriators were given more time.
Freedom Caucus members are insteadpushing Johnson to pass an extension of current funding levels until Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year – a plan they initially were against – which would trigger a 7 to 10 percent cut in nondefense discretionary spending based on parameters agreed to by Biden and McCarthy in last year’s debt ceiling deal.