House Speaker Mike Johnson has yet another complicated—and short—week ahead, with a partial government shutdown looming on Friday at midnight. The first hitch is the snowstorm engulfing much of the nation, including Washington, D.C. That just amps up the usual House Republican chaos with just three days to pass a short-term continuing resolution Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer agreed to in order to keep the government running.
Johnson called a snow day for the House Tuesday as members were scattered about the country, flight delays and cancellations keeping them away. That’s just the beginning of the problems Johnson is facing, the biggest being an enraged (again) MAGA caucus who are pissed off about almost everything.
“I’m not in agreement with this spending bill. I’m not even in agreement on the continuing resolution. We have a massive problem at our southern border,” Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida fumed on Fox News Sunday morning after a call Johnson had with the GOP conference. “Enough with the continuing resolutions. We’ve had plenty of time to address funding levels. Congress keeps punting this while our southern border remains a mess and our national debt continues to surge. We are doing the American people a disservice,” Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona told Politico.
They really want their shutdown, and they really want it to be about the border. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia also went on Fox and ratcheted up the stakes for Johnson, threatening to use the motion to vacate—the procedure that fellow chaos agent Rep. Matt Gaetz used to take down former Speaker Kevin McCarthy—against Johnson if he even thinks about considering a still-unreleased Senate bill combining border reforms and Ukraine aid. “It’s really an amnesty deal where Democrats are going to bring in millions and millions of illegals and turn them into Democrat voters,” she told Fox.
As if the weather, MTG, and the MAGA crowd weren’t enough, Johnson’s slim majority shrunk even more for the week when Rep. Hal Rogers had to be hospitalized following a car accident. He’s expected to be out for the week, meaning that right now, Johnson has just 218 Republican members to the Democrats’ 213, so he really can’t afford any defections.
The CR is simple, extending current funding until early March. The first group of agencies—Agriculture, Energy-Water, Military Construction-VA, and Transportation-HUD—are set to lose funding Friday, and the CR would extend the deadline to March 1. Funding for the remaining eight agencies would be extended to March 8. The Senate is in Tuesday, and will hold a cloture vote late in the day to advance the bill.
If Republicans over there want to hold it up, they could force a partial shutdown by refusing to agree to speed it up, forcing the vote to be as late as Sunday, but that doesn’t seem likely because everyone but the Freedom Caucus realizes government shutdowns are a disaster for Republicans.
The plan for now is for the Senate to have it ready for the House to vote on it Friday. Democrats will make sure it passes, once again saving a hapless House speaker’s bacon. That help from Democrats will also enrage the Freedom Caucus even more. It’s business as usual in the GOP House.
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