Just nine days into his speakership, Mike Johnson (R-LA) is establishing himself as a staunchly conservative leader who is willing to advance the GOP’s priorities while also juggling a number of legislative deadlines to keep the government open past Nov. 17.
The House passed a number of bills during its three-day work week, including two of its must-pass spending bills and a stand-alone funding bill for Israel — a top priority for Johnson after he claimed the speaker’s gavel last week. However, the newly elected leader still faces a mounting to-do list as the government nears a shutdown this month, which has become more complicated as Johnson continues to butt heads with his Democratic counterparts.
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But among his Republican colleagues, the sentiment is a positive one as they view the first full week of a Johnson speakership as successful.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who led the charge to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), expressed that he is pleased with how things are going and he likes where the conference is headed compared to the previous leader.
“We've passed multiple single-subject spending bills during the first few days of Mike Johnson being speaker,” Gaetz said. “It took us seven months to pass the first government spending bill under Kevin McCarthy. So he's definitely outdoing his predecessor.”
While Republican members have a general consensus that the first week under Johnson has been successful, they also acknowledge there will be an end to his honeymoon period — especially when it comes to appeasing the hard-line conservative members of the conference.
“As a guy who's been married for 52 years, everybody comes out of a honeymoon at some point,” Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) said. “But you know, I think what you saw over the last week is how much support he commands, and what I hope is dawning on the Conference is how much we can accomplish.”
Here's where things stand after Johnson's first full week as speaker and what he still must address:
House passes two more spending bills as shutdown deadline nears
The House passed two of its appropriations bills this week funding both the legislative branch as well as the Department of Interior, Environment, and other related agencies. Both pieces of legislation passed largely along party lines, setting up a spending showdown with the Democratic-led Senate ahead of the Nov. 17 deadline.
The two votes bring the House’s total number of passed appropriations bills to seven, surpassing the halfway mark to passing all 12 of its annual spending legislation two weeks before federal funding is set to lapse.
However, the House has not yet unveiled a proposal for how it will avoid a government shutdown after Johnson said last week he plans to advance some sort of temporary funding bill to give lawmakers more time to negotiate with the Senate on its appropriations bills. Johnson has said he would prefer a stopgap measure lasting through mid-January, although it’s not yet clear what that plan would look like.
He also raised the idea of a laddered continuing resolution that would keep individual agencies funded to separate dates. This was first floated by Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), an appropriations cardinal, as a way to create a sense of urgency to pass individual appropriations bills and avoid an omnibus or another continuing resolution. However, it is still unclear if this method could garner enough support to pass the House, let alone the Senate.
House punts on Transportation and Housing appropriations, throwing wrench in schedule
Shortly before being elected House speaker, Johnson released an aggressive legislative schedule to avoid a government shutdown that tees up all appropriations bills for a vote before the shutdown deadline. Under that proposal, the House was originally scheduled to vote on three of its must-pass appropriations bills for the Legislative Branch, Department of the Interior, and Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development and Related Agencies.
However, the third bill — Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development and Related Agencies — was postponed until next week due to absences in the House as well as some holdouts who threatened to vote against it. Northeast Republicans oppose it because they believe the bill unnecessarily slashes funding to Amtrak, whereas hard-line conservative members oppose it because it doesn’t cut enough spending.
“On THUD, we've got a problem on both ends, and we've got members that want to cut more even though the bill cuts $8 billion dollars in spending,” said Cole, the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development. “And then we've got problems on the other end because we really plussed up infrastructure, particularly Amtrak funding in a bipartisan infrastructure deal. And so we've used some of what would be their normal operational budget in other areas.”
The cut to the appropriations bill is not necessarily a cut in the appropriation process either. Most funding for Housing and Urban Development comes from refinancing fees, an average of $10 billion a year. But with nobody refinancing their homes due to high interest rates, that money did not come in as it usually would, leading to a loss of $7 billion to $8 billion that would usually be in the bill, according to Cole.
Additionally, Democrats had $3.6 billion in emergency funding attached to the bill last fiscal year, which Republicans removed this year, Cole said.
Now, the bill is appropriated at slightly below fiscal year 2022 levels. In fiscal year 2023, the bill was appropriated at $101.3 billion; in fiscal year 2022, it was at $93 billion, and this fiscal year it is down to $92.9 billion. But, the cuts still aren’t good enough for some — while others say it's too much.
“There's a sizable block of people who are not excited to vote for it and are still keeping their mind open based on the entire picture as it unfolds between now and early next week,” one Republican member said.
Republicans pass Israel funding bill that is DOA in the Senate
The House passed a $14.3 billion aid package to aid Israel as it defends itself against an invasion by the Hamas terrorist group, advancing the bill despite Senate Democrats already threatening to vote against it when it arrives in the upper chamber.
While aid to Israel is something both parties strongly agree with, Democratic support for the legislation broke down after Johnson added a provision in the bill that would cut $14.3 billion in funding from the Internal Revenue Service to offset the cost of the aid to Israel — prompting Democratic leaders to encourage party members to vote against it.
“It's a bad precedent to set. It costs resources. But we have never conditioned emergency aid like we have under Speaker Johnson this week. This is wrong. This is wrong for Israelis, this is wrong for the region,” House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-CA) said on Thursday. "This is Republicans playing politics with aid to Israel."
The bill sets the stage for Johnson’s first legislative fight as the aid package is dead on arrival in the Senate and has already received a veto threat from President Joe Biden.
Johnson must wrangle members amid GOP infighting
Aside from legislative business, Johnson must also wrangle his party members as they engage in political infighting.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) hit out against several of her GOP colleagues after they voted against her resolution to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) over her comments on Israel, accusing them of being “feckless” and failing to hold the Michigan Democrat accountable.
"This is why Republicans NEVER do anything to stop the communist Democrats or ever hold anyone accountable," Greene said in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. "PATHETIC."
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), one of the Republicans who voted to table the measure, explained his vote in a statement on Thursday, arguing the resolution itself was “deeply flawed” by making “legally and factually unverified claims, including the claim of leading an 'insurrection.'"
Greene fired back against Roy, accusing the Texas Republican of working against her to protect “Terrorist Tlaib” — tying her criticism to Reps. Ken Buck (R-CO) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO) as well.
“You voted to kick me out of the freedom caucus, but keep CNN wannabe Ken Buck and vaping groping Lauren Boebert and you voted with the Democrats to protect Terrorist Tlaib,” she responded in a post. “You hate Trump, certified Biden’s election, and could care less about J6 defendants being persecuted.”
“I do not have time for that,” Boebert said. “Does that secure our border? Does that lower inflation? Does that lower gas prices? Does that lower grocery prices? … I don't care then.”
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Despite the public tensions, House GOP leaders maintained the conference is unified as they move forward with passing appropriations bills and other legislative priorities after a three-week standstill.
“House Republicans are unified and hitting the ground running under the new leadership of Speaker Mike Johnson,” House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) said during the party’s weekly press conference.