Speaker Mike Johnson sticks by his deal with Democrats, insists Congress will finish spending bills

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday, facing a revolt within the Republican conference, defended his spending deal with the Democrat-led Senate and his support for another stopgap bill to avert a partial shutdown.

He said GOP lawmakers need to come to terms with the fact that they won’t get everything they want in the spending battle.

“That’s the reality of where we are. We’re not going to get everything that we want,” said Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican. “But we’re going to stick to our core conservative principles. We’re going to advance fiscal stewardship.”

He is under fire from his right flank for the $1.66 trillion spending deal he negotiated with Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, because it did little to curb spending. 

Mr. Johnson argued at his weekly press conference that the deal was better than the previous agreement negotiated by then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden. His deal won a $16 billion cut and freed Republican appropriators to get to work on conservative spending bills.

Passing another stopgap bill, which he previously vowed to never do again, would give Republicans more time to finish work on those bills. 

Complicating the stopgap’s path through the House is a growing group of far-right conservatives who have vowed to vote against any government funding until the House GOP’s border security bill is signed by Mr. Biden.

Mr. Johnson acknowledged the difficulty of his rebellious conference, noting that he was leading one of the smallest majorities in the history of Congress. The GOP’s three-seat majority will further shrink next week when Rep. Bill Johnson, Ohio Republican, resigns to become president of Youngstown State University.

Despite saber-rattling from conservatives, Congress is expected to beat a Friday deadline to stop a partial government shutdown. The Senate is on track to pass a stopgap spending bill by Thursday. House Democrats will likely help Mr. Johnson pass the bill, which pushes the deadline to March 1, before the Friday midnight deadline.

House Republicans wanted to pass the 12 annual spending bills one at a time, but they blew past the Sept. 30 deadline and have passed just seven of the bills that fund the federal government.

The Senate has only passed three spending bills. The House and Senate would also need to reconcile the two chambers’ versions of each bill and pass the final legislation.

Mr. Johnson said he was confident that appropriators would still be able to pass the remaining bills one by one rather than turning to a colossal package known as an omnibus bill, which has become the norm for Congress.

The speaker said one more stopgap would give lawmakers time to “roll up their sleeves” and resolve policy differences between the chambers. 

“I do hope that we have 12 separate appropriations bills, I believe there’s time to get that done,” Mr. Johnson said. “We’ll see how this develops. I mean, certainly, we’re not going to have an omnibus, and that was a very important innovation for us to forge forward because that’s no way to run a railroad.”