House conservatives revolt over GOP-backed spending bill to avoid shutdown
Washington — House Speaker Mike Johnson is facing a conservative revolt over a last-minute measure to keep the government funded into the spring and avoid a shutdown, with some Republicans strongly objecting to billions of dollars in spending that has been added to the bill.
Congressional leaders unveiled the stopgap funding measure late Tuesday after days of negotiations, facing a Friday deadline to approve new spending. The bill would extend government funding through March 14, but it also includes disaster aid, health care policy extenders and a pay raise for members of Congress, among other provisions. The disaster relief portion of the bill alone carries a price tag of $110 billion.
The legislation immediately sparked anger from multiple members of the House Republican conference, mostly targeted at Johnson. While the speaker had pledged to avoid the kind of massive, end-of-year spending bills that conservatives loathe, the final product resembled a scaled-down version of what the party’s right flank has railed against for years now.
But the Republicans’ slim majority in the House means Johnson will need Democratic votes to pass the bill, a dynamic that gave the minority more leverage to extract concessions during negotiations.
Johnson acknowledged that the bill was intended to be “very skinny” before a “couple of intervening things” occurred, citing the devastation left by hurricanes earlier this year.
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Before the text of the bill was released, Johnson dismissed Republican concerns that the continuing resolution was equivalent to an “omnibus” bill, a term used when Congress packages the annual appropriations bills that fund many federal government agencies into one large piece of legislation.
“This is not an omnibus, OK?” Johnson said at his weekly news conference on Tuesday. “This is a small [continuing resolution] that we had to add things to that were out of our control. These are not man-made disasters. These are things that the federal government has an appropriate role to do.”
Further angering conservatives was Johnson’s vow to give members 72 hours to read the bill before a vote. But a vote could come as soon as Wednesday, giving lawmakers less than 24 hours to get through the nearly 1,550-page text.
Rep. Eric Burlison, a Missouri Republican, on Tuesday called the process “a total dumpster fire.” He said he was “disappointed” in Johnson and called on him to “communicate better.” Other members, like Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, have dubbed the bill the “Cramnibus.”
The fight could prompt a challenge to Johnson’s speakership when the new Congress convenes on Jan. 3. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, said Wednesday that he won’t support Johnson in the speaker’s election.
“I’m not voting for him,” Massie said. “This solidifies it.”
Massie said he’s spoken with other members who have a similar stance.
Johnson has run into a buzzsaw of opposition outside the House as well. Elon Musk, the co-head of President-elect Donald Trump’s advisory Department of Government Efficiency, said in a post on X that any lawmaker “who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years.” Musk posted dozens of times throughout the day calling for lawmakers to oppose the bill, which he called “criminal.”
The speaker told Fox News earlier in the day that he had discussed the situation with Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the other DOGE co-head, on Tuesday evening. Johnson said he emphasized to them that passing a continuing resolution now would be “clearing the decks” and allow the incoming GOP majorities to “put our fingerprints on the spending” in March. Both Musk and Ramaswamy came out strongly against the bill anyway.
Trump himself has not indicated publicly how he thinks lawmakers should vote, leaving Republicans in Congress to fight amongst themselves.
While Johnson said he and GOP leaders had hoped to move forward with the legislation under the regular process, including bringing the bill through the House Rules Committee, pushback from committee members on the party’s right flank threatened to prolong the path to passage. The legislation is expected to instead be brought up under suspension of the rules, meaning a two-thirds majority will be required for passage.
The stopgap measure will lapse about two months into Trump’s second term, setting up another budget fight as Republicans try to pass Trump’s top priorities during his first 100 days. Though they’ll have control of both chambers of Congress, House Republicans will be operating with a thinner majority until vacant seats held by members joining the Trump administration are filled.
contributed to this report.
Kaia Hubbard
Source: cbsnews.com