House Speaker Mike Johnson on Thursday said he’s not backing out of the spending deal with Senate Democrats, despite mounting pressure from the far right of his conference.
“I made no commitments,” said Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, after a lengthy sit-down with conservatives in his office. “So if you hear otherwise, it’s just simply not true.”
Mr. Johnson recently unveiled a deal for $1.66 trillion top-line government spending for fiscal year 2024. The deal was designed to give appropriators a clear direction for crafting the annual spending bills ahead of a Jan. 19 deadline for a partial shutdown.
The House Freedom Caucus and other conservatives balked at the deal Mr. Johnson negotiated with Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat.
That frustration has led some members to float ousting Mr. Johnson, a repeat of the fate that befell former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Lawmakers filed out of the speaker’s office Thursday telling reporters that Mr. Johnson agreed with them that the deal did not go far enough in cutting spending, despite shaving off about $16 billion from the previously agreed spending levels.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican, said that Mr. Johnson agreed with her and other lawmakers that the current top-line spends too much in light of the $34 trillion federal debt.
“He claimed in there he agreed with everything I said,” Ms. Greene said. “And he claimed in there he agreed with other conservatives, everything that we said, so there’s going to be a new deal drawn up, and that’s what we’re in the process of.”
The sudden shift followed Mr. Schumer teeing up a vote Tuesday on a stopgap spending bill to give Congress more time to finish a full-year funding bill.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, who is the ranking Democrat of the House Appropriations Committee, said Mr. Johnson’s word is his credibility, and if he walks out on the deal he would shatter trust for future negotiations.
“Let’s stop negotiating against ourselves here,” she said.
Neither the House nor the Senate have scheduled votes on the remaining annual spending bills that need to pass to beat a Jan. 19 deadline for a partial government shutdown.
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a Florida Republican on the Appropriations Committee, criticized his fellow conservatives for trying to blow up the deal. He said there are only two options: negotiate for Republican wins in a compromise deal, which he said Mr. Johnson did, or walk away and get nothing.
“The problem is that some people here think that as soon as you do that, in other words, as soon as you get anything done, that you’re somehow doing something evil,” he said.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat, said if the GOP backed out of the Johnson-Schumer deal, it would be clear that they want a shutdown.
“There’s nothing more to discuss, to the extent that House Republicans back away from an agreement that was just announced a few days ago,” Mr. Jeffries said. “It will make clear that House Republicans are determined to shut down the government, crash the economy and hurt the American people.”
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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