Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he has a plan C to avert a shutdown and the House will vote Friday morning on the legislation — but Republicans indicated there is not yet widespread agreement.
“Yeah, yeah, we have a plan,” Johnson said Friday morning as he entered the Capitol. “We’re expecting votes this morning, so you all stay tuned. We’ve got a plan.”
He did not say what it entails. And lawmakers leaving meetings in Johnson’s office Friday morning indicated that there was not yet an agreement on a path forward.
“Anybody who’s telling you there’s an agreement is just a little bit ahead of themselves,” said Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), chair of the Republican Main Street Caucus said as he left the Speaker’s office later Friday morning.
Lawmakers have little time to avoid a shutdown: Government funding runs out when the clock strikes midnight late Friday.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said on CNBC on shortly after Johnson’s comments Friday morning that he thinks Washington will probably avoid a shutdown since “we’re pushed up against Christmas here,” saying a “clean” funding extension is likely.
“There’s a chance today a clean CR [continuing resolution], short-term clean CR — it may be for two, three weeks,” Mullin said. “That was something that was discussed, you know, late last night, you know, even some discussions this morning. I’m not going to say that’s going to happen, but you know, that’s really the option that’s on the table.”
But those in meetings in Speaker Johnson’s office on Friday morning signaled that the Speaker was wooing the holdouts from the plan B that failed on Thursday night on a more substantial plan.
“I am confident that we will be able to deliver on President Trump’s requests and his agenda, and we are working towards unity in the Republican Party … I wish that last night’s vote hadn’t have come to the floor, but maybe it did force us to get back to something similar to what we were negotiating before that vote,” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) said leaving Johnson’s office.
It’s unclear if Johnson’s plan will appease Trump and his demand to raise the debt ceiling as part of the CR, given opposition from hardline conservative Republicans to raising the debt limit.
Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) said leaving the meeting that he would not vote for a debt limit increase without “massive spending cuts and structural fiscal reform.”
It’s also unclear if Johnson’s plan will appease President-Trump and his demand to raise the debt ceiling as part of the bill.
Friday’s vote will be the latest effort by the House to fund the government ahead of the partial shutdown deadline. And it will come hours after the House on Thursday night voted down Johnson’s plan B bill that combined a three-month government funding extension with $110 billion in disaster and farm aid, some other policy measures, and a two-year suspension of the debt limit — the latter of which was a last-minute demand by Trump.
The failed vote marked a blow for Johnson and Trump, who endorsed the package, urged lawmakers to support it and threatened primary challengers for anyone who opposed it.
Aside from the debt limit increase, the plan B proposal was a stripped-down version of an initial funding deal that Johnson negotiated with Democrats and revealed earlier in the week. That initial bill included measures such as a health care deal and an increase in pay for members of Congress and ballooned the bill to more than 1,500 pages, prompting outrage from Republicans, Trump, and Elon Musk that helped kill the package.
Members were unsure Thursday night how they would solve the funding impasse after the plan B failed. They will have to not only get a bill that can appease Trump and pass in the narrow House GOP majority, but get approval from the Democratic-controlled Senate and White House.
Johnson’s comments Friday morning came moments before he was scheduled to huddle in his office with members of the far-right Freedom Caucus and at least two figures in the incoming Trump administration: JD Vance, the vice president-elect, and Russell Vought, who served as head of the White House budget office in Trump’s first term.
A long list of conservative House Freedom Caucus members trickled into the room after Johnson’s arrival, including Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas), Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) and Andy Harris (R-Md.), the chair of the group. None of them commented.
“It’s gonna be beautiful,” GOP Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) said.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) also arrived at Johnson’s office early Friday morning.
Trump’s last-minute demand to address the debt limit has drastically complicated the government funding process. It emerged as one of the main sticking points in negotiations, which is drawing opposition from Democrats and Republicans.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) wrote on social media Thursday that increasing the borrowing limit at this juncture was a “hard pass,” likely playing a role in most of the caucus opposing the proposal that hit the floor that day.
On the other side of the aisle, conservative Republicans have criticized raising the debt ceiling without cutting spending.
“New bill: $110BB in deficit spending (unpaid for), $4 TRILLION+ debt ceiling increase with $0 in structural reforms for cuts. Time to read the bill: 1.5 hours. I will vote no,” Roy wrote on social media.
Congress is not expected to have to deal with increasing the debt until summer 2025.
Updated at 9:36 a.m. EST
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