Speaker Mike Johnson strikes deal with Democrats for short-term funding extension to AVOID a government shutdown on Friday – but it could anger his Republican hardliner flank

Speaker Mike Johnson and congressional leaders have reached a deal on the spending, which will require a new short-term relief bill — the kind he loathes and that could anger his Republican hardliner flank.

The deal will push back two looming government shutdown deadlines later in March.

Lawmakers were approaching the first deadline at midnight on Friday, but the sweeping appropriations bills were still not completely in place.

The breakthrough agreement came the day after President Biden convened a meeting of Congress’s “Big Four” at the White House on Tuesday.

Top lawmakers have concluded negotiations on the Agriculture-FDA, Energy-Water, Military Construction-VA, Transportation-HUD, Interior and Environment, and Trade-Justice-Science bills, which are expected to be voted on next week, with a deadline of March 8 .

Funding for the other six agencies was set to expire on March 22.

The breakthrough agreement came the day after President Biden convened a meeting of Congress’s ‘Big Four’ at the White House on Tuesday

These include defense, financial services and general government, homeland security, Labor-HHS, legislature, and state and foreign operations.

They would likely be lumped into a number of minibuses combining funding from several government agencies into one vote, DailyMail.com has learned.

A vote on a continuing resolution, or CR, to extend the deadlines is expected Thursday in the House of Representatives and soon after in the Senate.

Congress was working against the clock to midnight Friday, when the government would be partially shut down if no deal was reached.

Now the risk of a partial government shutdown during President Biden’s State of the Union address next Thursday has been erased.

The “Big Four” leaders – Speaker Johnson, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell – released a joint statement Wednesday evening announcing the breakthrough deal.

“We agree that Congress must work together in a bipartisan manner to fund our government.”

“These bills will comply with the discretionary spending limits of the Fiscal Responsibility Act and the January Top Line Spending Agreement,” the leaders added in their statement.

They also promised that members would have at least 72 hours to revise the texts of the appropriations bills.

Johnson has insisted he will not hold a vote to extend the government’s funding deadline again, hoping the extra time will allow them to work out a deal. The agreement had to be there already.

But it will still be difficult to sell another short-term deal to conservative hardliners.

Some right-wing conservatives have demanded that border security provisions be attached to the spending legislation, which could thwart any chance of passage by both chambers.

Rep. Bob Good — the leader of the far-right House Freedom Caucus — said the deal is “more of the same.”

He is pushing for Johnson to tie Conservative priorities to the bills, including border security measures.

Good and the Freedom Caucus even suggested earlier this week that Johnson should abandon appropriations talks entirely and pursue a full-year CR.

“If Congress passes a CR past April 30, all discretionary spending will be cut by 1%!” Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., signed a provision on X that he dubbed “the Massie Rule.”

A one percent across-the-board budget cut was included in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, the debt limit deal that former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Biden negotiated.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., launched the motion to evict to impeach McCarthy for putting a CR on the House floor to miss the government’s funding deadline. But now Johnson has done the same thing twice.

“I hate CRs. We shouldn’t be doing this, and we’re not going to do it again next year,” Johnson said in November.

Other top lawmakers seemed particularly optimistic that they could strike a deal and get it approved in both chambers on time.

Following a meeting of President Biden and top congressional leaders, Johnson offered to move funding deadlines from March 1 for four government agencies and March 8 for the other eight to March 8 and March 22, respectively.

“We’re making good progress,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said after the meeting at the White House

“We’re making good progress,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said after the White House meeting and other meetings with the leaders, even as he described their conversation on Ukraine financing as “tense.”