House Speaker Mike Johnson insisted Friday he's sticking with the bipartisan spending deal he struck with other congressional leaders, but he offered no clear path for overcoming hard-right opposition within his own party to prevent a partial government shutdown next week. Johnson emerged from days of testy meetings behind closed doors at the Capitol to read a terse statement. Just months on the job, the new speaker is trying to set the record straight that he won't renege on the budget deal he made earlier this week. But in his first big test as the new leader, he has yet to show how he will quell the revolt from his right flank that ousted his predecessor, per the AP.
"Our top-line agreement remains," Johnson, R-La., said, referring to the budget accord reached Jan. 7. "We are getting our next steps together, and we are working toward a robust appropriations process. So stay tuned for all that." It's the same intractable political dilemma that led a core group of right-flank Republicans to boot Rep. Kevin McCarthy from the speaker's office last year as they revolted against the deal he struck with the other congressional leaders, and that President Joe Biden signed into law. As some Republicans from the Freedom Caucus again raise the threat of a motion to oust the speaker over the deal, centrists assured Johnson they have his back.
"We're here to bolster him up," said Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb. "This concept of trying to break a deal that was negotiated, it's a foreign concept," added Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla. The right flank is pressing Johnson to refuse the deal, with its $1.66 trillion in spending for the year, and to instead consider a temporary measure that would keep the government open but force 1% across-the-board cuts that are required to kick in if the broader package falls apart. They are also insisting that new immigration policies be included, which they say would stop the record flow of migrants at the US-Mexico border.
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