New House speaker passes first test: Avoid shutdown

Newly elected Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson passed his first major leadership test Tuesday by approving a short-term funding measure to avert a government shutdown.

Now comes the hardest part.

The expectation is that the Senate will adopt the proposal the emergency funding measure – known as a ‘continuing resolution’ or CR – well before Friday midnight’s deadline, extending financing for some parts of the government until January 19 and for the rest until February 2. That gives Congress time to try to complete the budget process, which requires 12 separate appropriations bills. But Tuesday also underlined the fault lines that could bedevil Mr Johnson in the coming weeks.

While all but two Democrats voted for the CR, they criticized Republicans for pushing for cuts below the level agreed to in a bipartisan bill this summer.

And nearly a hundred Republicans voted against the CR, angry that their new chairman would even temporarily continue to fund the government at levels set by Democrats before the Republican Party overthrew the House.

“There is a group of 20 members of the Republican Party (GOP) who are virtually impossible to vote on anything,” said South Dakota Rep. Dusty Johnson of the Main Street Republican caucus. “They are experts at making the perfect become the enemy of the good. We rule the country in spite of them, rather than with them.”

Newly elected Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson passed his first major leadership test Tuesday by approving a short-term funding measure to avert a government shutdown.

Now comes the hardest part.

Speaker Johnson and his fellow Republicans have pledged to go back to the old way of approving a budget — evaluating one part of the government at a time so lawmakers can weigh in — instead of all in one “omnibus” bill that leaders are negotiating. behind closed doors.

The expectation is that the Senate will adopt the proposal the emergency funding measure – known as a ‘continuing resolution’ or CR – well before Friday midnight’s deadline, extending financing for some parts of the government until January 19 and for the rest until February 2. That gives Congress time to try to complete the budget process, which requires 12 separate appropriations bills. But Tuesday also underlined the fault lines that could bedevil Mr Johnson in the coming weeks.

While all but two Democrats voted for the CR to avoid a shutdown, they criticized the budget process to date. Republicans have pushed to cut spending below levels agreed to in a bipartisan bill this summer and have included right-wing priorities in appropriations bills. “This is no way to run a country,” said Massachusetts Democratic Whip Katherine Clark.

On the Republican side, nearly a hundred Republicans voted against the CR, a measure that contradicts many who are calling for a more fiscally conservative government given the record national debt. Some were stunned that their new chairman would continue to fund the government at the fiscal year 2023 level set by Democrats before the Republican Party flipped the House.