Johnson backs temporary funding bill until Republicans take control of Congress

House Speaker Mike Johnson said a temporary spending bill will fund the government through the new year, after which Republicans will have control of Congress and the White House.

“We’re running out of clock, Dec. 20 is the deadline,” Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“We’re still hopeful we might be able to get that done, but if not, we will have a temporary measure, I think, that would go into the first part of next year and allow us the necessary time to get this done,” he said. “I think that would be, ultimately, a good move because the country would benefit from it because then you’d have Republican control and we’d have a little more say in what those spending bills are.”

The government is funded until Dec. 20, and Mr. Johnson blamed the Senate and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, New York Democrat, for not moving quickly enough to have a more permanent funding plan.

“It’s getting more and more difficult to get all of those bills done and here’s the reason why: the House has done its work, the Senate has not,” he said.

“Chuck Schumer is still the Democrat leader there in the Senate and he has refused to put a single appropriations bill on the floor,” he said. “That’s not how the process is supposed to work, so it’s broken down in that regard.”

Right now, Democrats have control of the Senate and the White House, while Republicans have control of the House. This Congress is set to end on Jan. 3, and the next one will see a Congress and White House completely controlled by Republicans.

“The new reform agenda begins in earnest as soon as President Donald J. Trump takes the office in January, and we have a full agenda to run,” he said. “It’s going to be a very aggressive first 100 days of the new Congress.”

Mr. Johnson said he spoke about that “aggressive” agenda with Sen. John Thune, South Dakota Republican, who was recently elected to lead the Republican caucus and thus become the next majority leader.

“He told me he is ready to go and deliver on those ’America First’ policies,” he said. “So it’ll be a very busy time for Congress and a good time for the country.”