Speaker Tries to Lead Government Out of Shutdown

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is in the hot seat this week, as he attempts to rally his majority around a Senate-modified spending package and avert a protracted government shutdown.

Since Saturday, the federal government’s discretionary spending authority has expired for key agencies. 

Senate Democrats and Republicans crafted a deal on Friday to fund the State Department and financial regulators, as well as agencies overseeing war, education, labor, health, and housing. 

However, the House and the president have to approve the package in order to fund the government.

The Senate package satisfied Democrat demands for separate consideration of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding by approving a two-week funding extension for the agency, in an attempt to buy time for a congressional debate over immigration law enforcement.

Now, Johnson, R-La., has to quickly rally the House behind the Senate’s package to prevent federal agencies from shutting down operations.

Normally, the Speaker could rush the package onto the floor under “suspension of the rules,” a process by which bill amendments and debate time are restricted in order to pass a non-controversial bill quickly.

This fast-track setup requires two-thirds majority approval, though, and Democrats have so far refused to provide the votes necessary to advance the package despite it passing the Senate by an overwhelming 71-29 margin.

“We need a full and complete debate, and what I’ve made clear to House Republicans is that they cannot simply move forward with legislation taking a ‘my way or the highway’ approach,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Saturday.

Without Democrat backing, Johnson now has to send the bill through the House rules committee—a leadership-controlled panel that determines the conditions for debate—before it can come to vote on the House floor.

This will likely push the potentially shutdown-ending vote to Tuesday, where Johnson would have to muster a simple majority for passage. However, with such a slim majority, he can only afford to lose two Republican votes if Democrats unite in opposition.

The question now is whether House Democrats are willing back funding for the homeland security agency for two weeks amid uproar over recent fatal shootings of protesters in Minnesota by immigration enforcement agents.

Seven House Democrats joined Republicans to vote for a DHS funding bill in January, but one of them, Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., later released a statement expressing regret for his vote.

Some Republicans may also seek to exert leverage at this critical moment, which could create more headaches for Speaker Johnson.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., for example, has said that if the House rules committee does not attach legislation to the spending package requiring voter ID in federal elections, “these appropriations bills will FAIL.”

Any alteration to the Senate’s bill text could complicate efforts to keep the government open, since both chambers must pass an identical bill.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a Monday statement that adding this legislation, the SAVE Act, to the appropriations process would lead to a shutdown.

“It is a poison pill that will kill any legislation that it is attached to,” Schumer said. “If House Republicans add the SAVE Act to the bipartisan appropriations package it will lead to another prolonged government shutdown.”

The post Speaker Tries to Lead Government Out of Shutdown appeared first on The Daily Signal.