Johnson facing a crossroad with GOP
House speaker seen as indecisive for role by many
Just a few weeks into his tenure as House Speaker, Mike Johnson called Representative Max L. Miller into his office to talk about how to fund the government as new deadlines loomed in early 2024. In the meeting, the Ohio Republican brought up his displeasure that Johnson’s first act as speaker was to pair cuts to the Internal Revenue Service with aid for Israel, which had just been attacked by Hamas.
Johnson was aiming to show his conservative bona fides, but the move rankled some in the conference, including Miller, who knew the Democratic controlled Senate would never accept the bill and aid for Israel would continue to languish. Johnson, who was elevated from a Republican backbencher to speaker overnight and has just a few deep relationships with his colleagues, eventually asked Miller what he wanted to see from leadership.
It’s a question colleagues say Johnson is still struggling with. Just shy of his 100th day serving as speaker of the House, Johnson has had to gather the reins of an unruly conference that, at seemingly every turn, has tested his ability to steady them. A staunch conservative, Johnson had believed his reputation within the House Freedom Caucus would help manage their demands in a way that former speaker Kevin McCarthy could not.
Now Johnson is facing the most critical moment in his short tenure with less than a week until funding runs out for 20 percent of the government. Does the Louisiana Republican shun the small but vocal farright faction in favor of governing and risk losing his speakership, or does he appease the hard-liners and shut down the government without concessions from Democrats? His attempts to please most members, while not turning his back on his conservative background, have left some lawmakers with the impression that Johnson remains too indecisive or naive for the job.
How Johnson navigates striking deals with a Democratic Senate and White House that an overwhelming majority of House GOP would support is being closely watched by members of his conference, who are keen to see how the negotiating novice handles the difficult political landscape. The drama is playing out at a crucial time for House Republicans, who entered an election year hoping to prove they can govern, while Congress faces two government funding deadlines over the next month, demands to secure the southern border in exchange for providing assistance to Ukraine, and other policy issues that must be addressed by the spring.
Congressional leaders are set to unveil legislation to extend federal government funding to March, attempting to dodge a government shutdown with another stopgap spending bill.
Funding for 20 percent of the government, including the Transportation Department, some veterans’ assistance, and food and drug safety programs, is set to expire Jan. 20, just after midnight. The rest, including for the Defense and State departments, expires on Feb. 2.
The measure that Congress will consider in the coming week will extend those deadlines to March 1 and March 8, respectively, a person familiar with congressional negotiations said Saturday. A spokesperson for Senate majority leader Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said his office planned to release legislative text of the agreement.
The legislation, which the Senate has already taken procedural steps to advance, would fund the government at current spending levels and maintain the staggered funding approach favored by Johnson, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
Johnson and Schumer have agreed on an overall $1.66 trillion spending deal for the 2024 fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. But lawmakers won’t have time to enact it before the deadlines, and some House Republicans attempted to scuttle the proposal late last week.
Many Republicans acknowledge the onerous, if not impossible, task Johnson has taken on while learning on the job. Representative Richard Hudson, Republican of North Carolina, said the conference put Johnson “in a boat that’s on fire,” while his Arkansas colleague, Representative Steve Womack, said the speaker is limited by myriad, conflicting demands from the far-right flank, making it “hard to worry about bailing water when you got the alligators sniffing at you.”
“[Whether] your name is Kevin McCarthy or Mike Johnson, this job is incredibly hard,” Miller said in an interview. He echoed what many Republicans across the conference have privately admitted: “I think a lot of us feel lost.”
In conversations with over two dozen Republican lawmakers and aides, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to outline closed-door meetings and private conversations, it became clear that frustration is growing with Johnson.
“If we just band together, we’d be okay,” Miller said. “The speaker has no leverage because we’re not unified ... Right now, we’re a little bit broken.”
UNRULY BUNCH
Speaker Johnson struggles to appease all sides as a looming government shutdown nears.