Speaker Mike Johnson insisted he will stick to the deal he cut with Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer, even after heated arguments with GOP hardliners who are threatening to try to fire him.
‘Our top line agreement remains,’ Johnson told reporters after a floor vote on Friday. ‘We are getting our next steps together, and we are working towards a robust appropriations process,’ Johnson told reporters after a floor vote on Friday.
Johnson prompted the ire of conservatives when he worked out a deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that would fund the government in fiscal year 2024 at a $1.6 trillion level.
Congress now has one week to pass a deal on spending before a partial government shutdown on January 19.
Speaker Mike Johnson insisted he will stick to the deal he cut with Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer, even after heated arguments with GOP hardliners who are threatening to try to fire him
Hardline Freedom Caucus Republicans decried the deal that they said would spend too much and did not include border security.
Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., a Freedom Caucus member who got into a heated conversation with Johnson on the House floor, suggested that he’d gotten rolled by Schumer with the deal.
‘My only lament for the speaker is that he has actually fallen into the trap of being up against a deadline and playing this game on Chuck Schumer’s terms,’ he told reporters, adding that his ‘confidence is waning’ in the speaker.
And as some floated the idea of firing Johnson with a motion to vacate, the new speaker spent Thursday meeting with hardliners.
Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., chair of the Freedom Caucus, said there ‘was 100% consensus in the room with everyone who was meeting with the speaker that the deal is terrible for the country.’
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said filing a motion to vacate ‘could be something’ if Johnson continues to cut deals with Democrats, or passes more funding to Ukraine.
‘If those deals are going to be made, then absolutely that’s on the table.’
Now, some have turned their fight to attaching border security to the must-pass spending deal – and aren’t afraid to shut down the government to do so.
Attaching border provisions would further risk throwing the government into
Hardline Freedom Caucus Republicans decried the deal that they said would spend too much and did not include border security
Moderate Republicans, meanwhile, are frustrated with their right-wing colleagues and urge Johnson to stick to the deal he made.
‘The regular order crowd, those who don’t like drama and dumpster fires, our concern is that maybe you get to see more mob rule,’ one Republican member said.
‘Their temperatures are getting up pretty high,’ the member added. ‘They hope Speaker Johnson upset the applecart too much. the reality is if you cut a deal you cut a deal. It’s gonna be pretty tough to wiggle out of that now.’
‘A deal’s a deal and it’s already been made and we’ve got to stick with it,’ Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick R-Pa., told DailyMail.com. ‘It’s already been announced.’
‘It seems like when you make a deal, you make a deal,’ added Rep. Lori Chavez-Deremer, R-Wash.
The situation called to mind the spending saga under Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who ultimately gave up on working with hardline Republicans and put a negotiated continuing resolution (CR) on the floor and lost his job for it.
‘This is like a movie repeating itself,’ Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., said. ‘The frustrating thing is that the end of the day is that whatever the deal is, they’ll probably vote against it anyway.’
Members have also grown frustrated with the motion to vacate threats.
‘I don’t scream if I’m in the operating room and don’t have the right equipment, I make it work,’ said Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., a former surgeon.
Earlier this week Johnson unveiled a $1.6 trillion spending plan to fund the government in fiscal year 2024, the same level agreed to in the debt limit deal between President Biden and former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The deal will include $886.3 billion for defense spending and $772.7 billion for non-defense programs.
The deal actually spends $1.66 trillion, but a ‘side deal’ of offsets and budget-saving measures brings that number down by $69 trillion on the non-defense side, to $1.59 trillion. It will also slash an $20 billion from Biden’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
‘The topline agreement includes hard-won concessions to cut more billions, as you know, from the IRS giveaway and the COVID-era slush funds,’ Johnson said. ‘It replaces accounting gimmicks from the prior FRA [Fiscal Responsibility Act] agreement. And it brings Congress much closer to regular order, which is our big commitment here.’