Today, US House Speaker Mike Johnson will face a tough challenge from his own party as he seeks Democratic help to prevent a government shutdown.
The House of Representatives will vote this afternoon on a bill that would keep the government funded past November 17, the deadline for a new budget.
Johnson has decided to bypass a possible obstacle from some conservative Republicans and bring the bill directly to the House floor. However, this means he needs a two-thirds vote to pass the bill—so he will have to rely on Democrats to support him.
“As you know, this is a bipartisan effort to avoid a shutdown of the government,” Johnson said on Fox News.
Before Friday, when the current funding for federal agencies runs out, the House and Senate must pass a spending bill that President Joe Biden will sign into law to avoid another government shutdown in 10 years.
Johnson’s plan has received cautious approval from Democrats in both chambers, who say they are happy that the bill does not have any divisive provisions on abortion or other sensitive social issues.
But the bill does not have the deep spending cuts and border-security measures that many Republicans want. Representative Kevin Hern, the leader of a group of conservative Republicans, said he expects 30 to 40 of them to vote against it.
Some Republicans said they would back it.
“I think shutting down the government is worse,” said Representative Drew Ferguson.
This is the third time this year that Congress has faced a fiscal crisis, after a long deadlock in the spring over the US debt of more than $31 trillion, which almost caused the federal government to default.
The persistent partisan stalemate led Moody’s to downgrade its outlook on the US credit rating from “stable” to “negative” on Friday, as it warned that high interest rates would keep pushing up the borrowing costs.
Johnson became the speaker less than three weeks ago, with little experience in leading the Congress.
He has a narrow 221-213 majority, so he can only lose up to three votes from his party on bills that Democrats don’t support.
But it’s not clear if Democrats will support him.
Senate Democratic Chuck Schumer gave a lukewarm response to the plan.
“I’m glad that Speaker Johnson seems to be moving towards us,” he said.
Johnson’s bill would fund some federal programs – such as military construction, veterans benefits, transportation, housing, urban development, agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration and energy and water programs – until Jan. 19. The rest of the federal operations – including defense – would get funding until Feb. 2.
Johnson’s tactic is similar to what his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, did. He passed a stopgap spending bill on Oct 1 with Democratic votes. That upset some Republicans, who made him quit his job a few days later.
Republicans say Johnson won’t face the same fate as McCarthy. But some hardliners have noticed the similarity.
“We’re doing the same thing again,” Representative Chip Roy told reporters.