Speaker Johnson tees up next plan to avert shutdown

House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters on Friday that he had another plan to avert a partial government shutdown after his previous two went up in smoke.

“Yeah, yeah, we have a plan,” the Louisiana Republican said as he entered the Capitol. “We’re expecting votes this morning, so you all stay tuned. We’ve got a plan.”

Congress has until midnight to pass another short-term funding patch, but intervention from tech billionaire Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump derailed Mr. Johnson’s original plan with congressional Democrats.

His backup plan, which was a trimmed-down version of the prior deal that included $100 billion in disaster aid, $10 billion in assistance for farmers and Mr. Trump’s request to suspend the debt-ceiling debate for two more years, also failed, with nearly every Democrat and over 30 fiscal conservatives in the House voting against it.

What the latest plan entails is unclear. The speaker met with members of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus on Friday morning to discuss options after the group almost universally opposed his backup plan, which was backed by Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk.

The caucus met late Thursday after the vote to throw ideas around. Rep. Ralph Norman, South Carolina Republican, said after the meeting that members would vote for a “clean” funding patch with added policy riders and disaster aid, but that plan wouldn’t likely pass with the broader spectrum of House lawmakers.

He said that the real issue is Mr. Trump’s push to punt the debt-ceiling fight and that it appears the president-elect is willing to see the government shut down without that attached to a stopgap bill.

On Friday just before 10:30 a.m., Mr. Norman left the discussion in the speaker’s office saying Republicans agreed to a new deal that he will support.

“I can’t say what it is,” he said. 

The Rules Committee was preparing to gather later Friday morning to prepare the updated legislation for floor action, said Mr. Norman, a member of the panel.

Other Republicans leaving the speaker’s office declined to comment on the new plan. 

Other more moderate Republicans argued that Mr. Johnson should consider putting the original plan back on the floor for a vote. Democrats are unlikely to vote for anything other than the original bill, which is over 1,500 pages long, and Mr. Johnson will have a hard time corralling the entirety of the House GOP to vote in favor of a measure that Mr. Trump doesn’t back. 

With a slim majority, the speaker needs Democrats to pass a funding patch.

“In the end, we had an agreement,” said Rep. Don Bacon, Nebraska Republican. “We should have tried to stick close to that agreement.”

As House Republicans hatched their new plan, top Senate Democrats, including Majority Leader Charles E.  Schumer of New York and Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray of Washington, called on them to revert to the original bipartisan agreement that Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk scuttled.

“It’s the quickest, simplest and easiest way we can make sure the government stays open while delivering critical emergency aid to the American people,” Mr. Schumer said.