House Speaker Mike Johnson’s choice to stick with the fiscal 2024 spending deal he negotiated with the Senate’s top Democrat has further enraged arch-conservatives in his conference, and all but guaranteed a rocky road ahead.
Conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus tried to convince Mr. Johnson to walk away from the $1.66 trillion spending deal he negotiated with Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, and believed the speaker was on their side Thursday night after hours of closed-door negotiations.
But Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, changed course on the arch-conservatives, they said.
Lawmakers in the Freedom Caucus have since vowed to not vote for the spending legislation, and some have threatened to oust Mr. Johnson if he sticks to it.
“I have no interest and I have no intention, and I will not be voting for anything that does this,” said Rep. Scott Perry, Pennsylvania Republican, on X.
Mr. Perry’s stance, coupled with a dwindling, razor-thin GOP majority in the House, means that arch-conservatives could gamble with paralyzing the House as they pressure Mr. Johnson to get lower spending levels.
Rep. Byron Donalds, Florida Republican, said that he still trusts Mr. Johnson, despite his choice to stick to the deal, but that his confidence in the speaker to get conservative wins is “waning.”
A growing list of Republicans — including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Chip Roy of Texas — have floated the idea of booting Mr. Johnson through the motion to vacate proceedings, which were used last year to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, who led the eight conservatives in voting to oust Mr. McCarthy, said that if Mr. Johnson did stick with the spending deal, his job could be in jeopardy.
“Of course, because if we go along with the Schumer deal, we won’t be in the majority and Republicans won’t be selecting the speaker,” Mr. Gaetz said.
When pressed on whether he would vote to oust Mr. Johnson, Mr. Gaetz said, “No, I would not.”
Meanwhile, the Democrat-led Senate has teed up a stopgap bill to avert a shutdown on Jan. 19, a move that many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle see as the best choice to avoiding a partial shuttering of the government. However, Mr. Johnson has not publicly committed to a stopgap bill coming from the House.
Some House Republicans favor a stopgap that would include border security policy riders similar to the GOP’s blockbuster border bill from last year. But that push could run afoul of ongoing negotiations in the Senate to couple President Biden’s emergency funding request for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan with border security policy.
And a stopgap spending bill combined with strict border security measures drawn from the Secure the Border Act would be nixed by House Democrats.
“All I want to do is secure the border of this nation,” Mr. Donalds said. “And if Senate Democrats, and frankly House Democrats and the White House say ’no, we want an open border,’ then my position is clear: Then you get no money.”
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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