Speaker Mike Johnson defends spending bill amid Republican opposition

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday confronted critics in his Republican Party who say the stopgap funding bill to avoid a government shutdown Friday has become a bloated spending package.

Mr. Johnson acknowledged that the once “very skinny, very simple” funding patch had grown to include other priorities, such as disaster aid and farm subsidies. 

But he said the bill wasn’t the type of catch-all massive spending bill known as an “omnibus” that many of his Republican colleagues despise.

“This is not an omnibus, okay? This is a small [spending patch] that we had to add things to that were out of our control,” Mr. Johnson said during his weekly press conference. “[These are] not man-made disasters. These are things that the federal government has an appropriate role in. So I wish it weren’t necessary.”

The rush also is on to finish the spending bill before lawmakers go home Friday for the holidays.

The stopgap bill, known as a continuing resolution in Capitol Hill jargon, is expected to come out later Tuesday. It will likely include most, if not all, of President Biden’s $100 billion disaster aid request and $10 billion in aid for farmers, among other things. It is expected to punt the government funding fight until March 14. 

Lawmakers have still not seen the text of the bill, which was expected to be released on Sunday but was derailed by calls for more funding for farmers amid ongoing negotiations on the long-awaited Farm Bill.

House Agriculture Committee Chair Chair Glenn Thompson, Pennsylvania Republican, called the expected $10 billion for farmers in the stopgap “good CPR.”

“It’s not advanced life support, but we’ll have a farm bill that will have a robust safety net soon after the first of the year,” he said. 

Still, the ongoing delay of the bill’s release coupled with last-minute add-ons and few spending cuts have Republicans unhappy with the year-end spending package, meaning Mr. Johnson will likely once again have to turn to Democrats to pass the bill and avoid missing the Friday deadline.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a staunch critic of Mr. Johnson’s, argued that the bill had basically “turned into a three-month omnibus” and questioned why the measure didn’t do any extra heavy lifting, like dealing with the impending debt-ceiling deadline early next year. 

“We’ve had a long time to deal with it, so it’s the same, basically same pattern of behavior,” Ms. Greene, Georgia Republican, said. 

Other conservatives were more harsh with their criticism of Mr. Johnson’s plan. 

Rep. Eric Burlison, Missouri Republican, called it a “total dumpster fire.” He said the speaker could do better.

“I think that it’s shameful that people that celebrate DOGE coming, and then we’re going to vote for another billion dollars to be added to the deficit, it’s ironic,” Mr. Burlison said.