Johnson, Unbowed, Vows to Hold Vote on Third Funding Plan

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., arrived at the Capitol Friday morning declaring Republicans had arrived at yet another plan to avert a government shutdown and vowing that a vote on the measure is imminent.

“We’re expecting votes this morning, so you all stay tuned,” Johnson said as he hurried past reporters shortly after 8 a.m. and headed into a meeting that could determine the fate of the latest continuing resolution.

“We’ve got a plan,” he said, his face a grim mask.

Asked if he’d reached an agreement with the 38 Republicans who voted down an earlier version of the resolution last night, Johnson offered only, “We’ll see.”

Waiting for Johnson in his office were several members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, including Reps. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., and Chip Roy, R-Texas, as well as Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., the chairman of the raucous faction.

In addition to Johnson, those who gathered to meet with the group included House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, and Vice President-elect JD Vance.

If they can’t reach an agreement and another vote fails on the funding extension, the government will move perilously close to a partial shutdown at midnight.

Friday’s drama is a result of a hastily held and ultimately failed vote on a so-called “Plan B” that would have averted a shutdown by tying an extension of government funding to a two-year suspension of the federal debt ceiling.

Plan B replaced an earlier bipartisan, bicameral budget deal that was shot down by President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday.

In a series of interviews and posts to his social media site Truth Social, Trump called the three-month government funding bill House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., brokered with House Democrats both “unacceptable” and a “trap” laid by the minority party.

In its original form, the 1,500-page bill would have averted a government shutdown by maintaining current levels of spending until March 14.

It also contained a number of unrelated provisions, including more than $100 million in disaster aid and emergency funding, a 500-page health care package, a one-year extension of the 2018 Farm Bill, and a cost-of-living raise for Congress.

But Trump wanted more than to block the many sweeteners Johnson was willing to offer the Democrats.

What he wants, he said, is for the federal debt ceiling to be eliminated, a move he said was vital to advancing his America-first agenda — and he vowed to field primary challengers against any Republican who voted in favor of a measure that didn’t include that provision.

Thursday night’s dramatically slimmed down 116-page version of the funding measure came after hours of meetings in the speaker’s office with Republican leaders and James Braid, Trump’s incoming director of Legislative Affairs.

That package would have again extended government funding for three months, and also suspended the debt limit until January 2027.

It also would have extended the Farm Bill for a year and continue to provide $100 billion for disaster aid.

Most of the rest of the original bill was gone.

But that wasn’t enough to appease the House Freedom Caucus and other conservative GOP members of the chamber who balked at increasing the government’s borrowing limit.

In the end, Thursday’s night’s 235-174 vote was a defeat for Johnson, who relied on a special procedure to fast-track the proceeding. It required that two-thirds of members in the chamber vote in favor of the plan.

By the time the dust cleared, the support for the measure didn’t not even come close to a simple majority with 197 Democrats voting no (two voting yes) and the aforementioned 38 Republicans voting no.

On the Republican side, 172 supported the measure.

On Friday morning, the House was scheduled to meet for legislative business – nominally “one minute speeches” by members on each side of the aisle — starting at 9 a.m. But about 10 minutes later, the chamber recessed as it awaited the announcement of the next crucial vote.

Initial indications from those meeting with Johnson is that “Plan C” is very similar to “Plan B,” and a Republican lawmaker leaving the meeting told reporters “no deal has been made with the Democrats.”

Others have suggested that the resolution to be put forward on Friday would simply punt the debate over the larger resolution, extending the funding deadline to just past the holidays.

For his part, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., took to the BlueSky social media platform to critique colleagues on the other side of the aisle.

“Republicans would rather cut taxes for billionaire donors than fund research for children with cancer,” Jeffries wrote.

“That is why our country is on the brink of a government shutdown that will crash the economy, hurt working class Americans and likely be the longest in history,” he said, adding, “Welcome back to the MAGA swamp.”

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