Speaker Mike Johnson unveils plan to avert shutdown next week

WASHINGTON — Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday night unveiled his plan to avert a partial government shutdown next week, telling Republicans on a conference call that the House would vote on four separate appropriations bills and may need a stopgap funding bill to buy lawmakers more time, according to two sources.

Despite Johnson’s strategy, lawmakers warned about the threat of a brief shutdown at the end of the week given Congress’s tight schedule. House members are not slated to return to Washington until Wednesday night and the Senate could face delays if rabble-rousers like Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., try to block speedy passage of a funding measure.

“While we have been working nonstop on our bills, there are differences that cause some concern” about a possible shutdown, Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, who serves as chairman of the Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Homeland Security, said Friday.

Four of the 12 appropriations bills — which would provide funding for agencies covered by Agriculture, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, Energy-Water and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development — face the Friday deadline. The remaining eight appropriation bills, covering critical agencies like the Defense, State and Justice departments, face a March 8 deadline. It’s that first tranche of bills that the House will vote on next week.

Sources made clear that Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, does not want to pass another stopgap measure, known as a continuing resolution or CR.

But the CR is a “might need” for another week or two, one of the sources on the call said.

Earlier this week, members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus urged Johnson to back a year-long stopgap bill unless he can secure conservative policy riders. The Freedom Caucus likes the idea of a full-year CR because under last year’s bipartisan debt deal, a 1% cut would kick in if all of the appropriations bills are not passed by the end of April.

But during Friday’s call, Johnson pushed back on the year-long CR, raising concerns about cuts to defense spending, the sources said.

Johnson also lamented that the GOP is in a weaker negotiating position with the Democratic-led Senate because House Republicans have struggled to even pass a rule to move GOP legislation through the lower chamber. The Senate is rejecting GOP policy riders because they know the House can’t pass a rule, Johnson told rank-and-file members.

Moving the spending bills without passing a rule would be risky, since passage would then require support from two-thirds of the House — meaning Democrats would need to sign on. Republicans hold just a two-seat majority in the lower chamber.