Mike Johnson: Let’s Get Washington Working Again

Amid partisan gridlock in Congress that has shut the government down, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has closed the House of Representative’s doors for the time being.

The chamber has not voted since mid-September, and Johnson has signaled his intention to wait on the Senate to reopen the government.

But he told reporters Monday that his strong-armed approach is actually an attempt to make Washington function again.

“I’m anxious to get my folks back,” he told The Daily Signal Monday. “Look, I want to bring the House back into session and get back to work, but we can’t do it until they turn the lights back on. We need [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer to reopen the government, and as soon as he does that, we’ll bring everybody back here.”

Of course, the lights are not literally turned off in the Capitol, and House leadership is completely able to resume work, regardless of what Schumer, D-N.Y., does in the Senate.

But Johnson is altogether rejecting the idea of negotiating amid a shutdown as Democrats have repeatedly voted down the short-term, clean funding extension that the House passed in September. As he repeated in the press conference, “there’s nothing for us to negotiate,” in the clean funding extension.

His proposal? Work out disagreements in the bill-by-bill, bipartisan appropriations process once the government reopens.

In fact, he says he has already given his guarantee to Democrats to support bipartisan funding talks once the government has reopened.

“I had, I think, a fruitful discussion with [top Democrat appropriator] Sen. Patty Murray [of Washington] … and I told her it is my full intention, if we break this impasse and we put these bills together … whatever the conference committee comes up with, I will put on the floor,” he told reporters.

Throughout the press conference, Johnson refused to give Democrats an inch on their substantial funding demands.

But he reminded reporters that, since taking the gavel, he has advocated restoring funding power to the rank and file of Congress, rather than a couple of congressional leaders in a smoke-filled room.

“I became Speaker almost two years ago, and I was frustrated … about how Congress really doesn’t work that well for the American people. We don’t spend money responsibly here,” he said. “We haven’t for many years, and the reason for that is because, typically, for the annual funding of the government, it’s done in a back room.”

The speaker gave his pledge to continue the funding process and listen to all the voices in Congress.

“I’ve been doggedly determined to make this House and Senate work again, to do right by the American people … to rebuild the muscle memory, to get back to the way it is supposed to work. Congress is supposed to carefully deliberate over 12 separate appropriations [bills].”

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