With another possible government shutdown arriving in 11 days, newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) faces an uphill battle to pass a stopgap funding bill that will likely need bipartisan support. But of several proposals, only one is likely to appeal to the Democrats.
Johnson is prepared to bring up three possible continuing resolutions at Tuesday’s Republican conference meeting, a senior GOP aide told Politico. The three possibilities are a clean continuing resolution into early next year, a CR with spending cuts across the board, and a “laddered CR.”
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A “clean” CR, an option highly favored among Democrats, is a stopgap funding measure that does not make any spending changes or cuts, keeping the spending levels the same until the deadline. The clean passage of the CR in September, which passed with the help of 209 Democrats, included $6 billion in Ukraine aid, nearly $6 billion in disaster response, and extended authorizations for several key programs.
The second option, a CR with heavy spending cuts, particularly in defense, is likely to draw significant hard-line GOP support. However, any cuts to Ukraine funding or other defense programs aimed at diversity and inclusion are all but guaranteed to drive away Democratic support. Some centrist Republicans may not go for a bill that centers on heavy cuts, either.
The “laddered” CR is a unique strategy floated by Johnson that would extend the government through Jan. 15. The idea, proposed by Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), appears to create a series of rolling shutdown deadlines, pushing specific government agencies to pass their separate funding bills, and could lead to a partial shutdown regardless.
However, it is unlikely that the “laddered” CR would get support from Democrats or President Joe Biden, so introducing it could set the House up for a series of rolling government shutdowns.
“I think the speaker doesn’t have a clue. He doesn’t know about the appropriations process,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) told CQ last week. “That’s 12 shutdowns. What are we talking about?”
With Democratic cooperation hinging on a clean CR and no signal from Johnson that he is in the mood for bipartisan negotiation, it is likely the government will be heading into another last-minute showdown, such as the one seen on Sept. 30.
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Congress narrowly avoided a government shutdown with the at-the-buzzer passage of a CR thanks to bipartisan support in the House — an outcome that ultimately led to Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) removal as speaker by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), seven other Republicans, and all of the Democrats.
Johnson is working overtime to prevent a government shutdown. He and several House Republicans are committed to passing the 12 appropriations bills separately as opposed to putting unrelated spending measures into omnibus packages, a move the Senate favors. Last week, the speaker met with the Senate GOP conference to discuss a temporary spending bill that runs through Jan. 15.
