Speaker Johnson Facing Conservative Pushback

(continued from Page 3) “Look, leadership is tough. You take a lot of criticism, but remember, I am a hardline conservative. That’s what they used to call me,” Johnson said. “I come from that camp.”

He called the spending deal a “down payment on restoring us to fiscal sanity in this country.” He also said that if Republicans “demonstrate we govern well” it would help them grow their majority in the next Congress, which could help them get more of the spending cuts they want down the road.

“We’re going to turn this thing completely around, and I can’t wait to do it,” Johnson said. Many Republicans doubt that colleagues would want to put the House through more of the chaos that erupted when McCarthy was ousted. It took nearly three tense weeks to land on Johnson as a replacement for McCarthy. Johnson has been on the job for less than three months, having just recently filled out his staff. Government funding expires Jan. 19 for about 20% of the federal government, while the rest of the government is funded only through Feb. 2. The agreement that McCarthy negotiated with the White House called for capping defense spending at $886 billion and non-defense spending at about $704 billion for the current fiscal year, which began in October.

A series of side agreements made as part of the debt ceiling deal lifts the non-defense spending to about $772 billion.

In recent months, lawmakers have been working to incorporate that agreement into the spending bills that will fund the federal government for the year. House and Senate leaders announced their agreement on overall spending levels Sunday.

Johnson said when announcing the overall spending numbers that he was able to speed up the roughly $20 billion in cuts already agreed to for the Internal Revenue Service in the debt ceiling deal and rescind about $6 billion in COVID relief money not yet spent. He called it the most favorable budget agreement Republicans have achieved in over a decade.

However, McCarthy’s debt ceiling deal was not popular with many House Republicans and contributed to his ouster. They were hoping Johnson would gain more non-defense spending cuts and do more to deter the historic number of people arriving at the U.S.Mexico border from countries all over the world.

The debate over this year’s spending bills is separate from the negotiations that are taking place to secure additional funding for Israel and Ukraine. That funding is a top priority of the Biden administration, but Republicans are insisting that such a package contain tougher immigration restrictions.

Johnson met for nearly two hours after the floor debacle with hard-right Republicans, who emerged satisfied afterward that the new speaker was considering their frustrations and changing course. Good left saying they were on a better “path forward.”

Many Republicans believe Johnson got what he could given the slim majority and debt ceiling agreement he inherited.

“When you barely control one house of Congress and you don’t control the executive branch, you’re not dealing with the strongest hand to begin with. I think most people who are practical understand that. We’ll just see how many practical people there are in the next few days,” said Rep. Frank Lucas, R-0kla.