New turmoil over a possible government shutdown

Meetings on Thursday between U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson and conservative lawmakers led to speculation he was about to walk away from the bipartisan spending agreement he signed off on just this past weekend — a decision that would greatly increase the chances of a partial government shutdown next week.

At the Capitol, a small bloc of House GOP lawmakers who are frustrated with Johnson for brokering the spending deal with Democrats met with the speaker on the next steps in the government funding process.

While the spending deal is seen by many as a major step forward in moving toward consensus following months of tumult, certain GOP lawmakers want to see changes or possibly additions.

Those talks led to considerable confusion as to whether Johnson was considering a shift in the spending deal.

“Let me tell you what’s going on,” Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, told reporters outside his office. “We’re having thoughtful conversations about funding options and priorities. We had a cross section of members in today. We’ll continue having cross sections of members in. And while those conversations are going on, I’ve made no commitments. So if you hear otherwise it’s just simply not true. We’re looking forward to those conversations.”

Democrats and some Republican lawmakers expressed concern that Johnson might switch course just days before a government funding deadline that comes more than three months into the fiscal year.

Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Thursday afternoon that her staff told her “there are rumors about that,” though she hadn’t heard from Johnson on the issue.

“I certainly hope that’s not true because it increases the chances of a government shutdown,” Collins said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that senators would continue negotiations with the House based on the agreement for total spending levels that he and Johnson announced Sunday.

“Look, we have a topline agreement,” Schumer said. “Everybody knows to get anything done it has to be bipartisan. So we’re going to continue to work to pass a CR and avoid a shutdown.”

CR stands for “continuing resolution,” the name often given to the short-term spending bill that Congress approves to give themselves more time to negotiate agreement on the full-year spending bills.

Congress has passed two of those bills so far for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1 and the Senate is on track to vote on a third CR next week ahead of the Jan. 19 funding deadline for some of the annual bills.

Womack: A ‘flawed strategy’

Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., hadn’t heard directly from Johnson about whether he planned to withdraw from the spending agreement as of Thursday afternoon.

“I’m doing my job according to the agreement we have and I’m moving forward,” Murray said.

That spending agreement would provide $886.3 billion in defense and $772.7 billion in domestic discretionary spending for the current fiscal year, which began back on Oct. 1.

Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., said Thursday afternoon that he expected to hear soon if Johnson was considering walking away from the topline deal, though he said that wouldn’t be wise.

“Renegotiating for purposes of appeasing a group of people, 100% of whom you’re not going to have, in my opinion, could be a flawed strategy,” Womack said, referring to the conservatives who have been calling for Johnson to scuttle the agreement.

That group of especially conservative Republicans, many of whom are members of the far-right Freedom Caucus, rarely, if ever, vote for spending bills. And it’s unlikely that they would vote for any full-year bills that can garner support in the Democratic Senate, let alone President Joe Biden’s signature.

Maryland Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer, the former House Democratic leader, said that if Johnson were to walk away from the spending deal it would affect his ability to negotiate agreements in the future.

“You can only do that so many times and have any credibility or respect for the way you do business,” Hoyer said.

House Republicans, Hoyer said, have remained a “deeply divided, divisive and dysfunctional party” despite removing their former speaker and electing Johnson to the role.

Congress must pass some sort of spending bill before Jan. 19, otherwise the departments and agencies funded by the Agriculture, Energy-Water, Military Construction-VA and Transportation-HUD spending measures would enter a shutdown.

The remaining departments and agencies funded through the annual appropriations process would shut down on Feb. 2 if the House and Senate haven’t come to agreement on either a short-term spending bill or the full-year bills before that deadline.

The Senate is on track to vote on a stopgap spending bill next week that would keep the federal government funded a bit longer. Schumer took steps Thursday to set up a procedural vote Tuesday that will require at least 60 senators to advance it toward final passage. The details of that stopgap spending bill haven’t been released.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a Thursday press briefing that House Republicans “need to keep their word,” on the spending deal agreement that Johnson made with Democrats over the weekend.

“We cannot have a shutdown,” she said. “That is their basic duty, to keep the government open.”

Ariana Figueroa contributed to this report.  

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