OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
House Speaker Mike Johnson recessed the chamber on Thursday with just two more days left in the legislative session, ahead of a pair of government shutdown deadlines, which has put lawmakers on a crucially short timeline to reach a bipartisan deal.
Fox News reported that the current session ended after House leaders canceled votes that were scheduled for Friday.
“Unless members have caucus or committee work to attend to, they are largely not expected back on Capitol Hill until Feb. 28 – two days before the March 1 deadline to fund some government agencies,” the outlet noted, adding that all other agencies must be funded before March 8.
“We think we’re going to meet the deadlines,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters on Wednesday.
He previously approved two short-term extensions of the previous year’s government funding agreement, known as continuing resolutions. Overall, Congress has passed three such resolutions to ensure the government remains operational beyond the original fiscal year deadline of September 30.
Nevertheless, the spending disputes have emerged as a highly contentious issue for Johnson’s narrow House GOP majority, and indications suggest that it won’t become any less challenging in the near future, Fox News noted.
The outlet continued:
Last month, he and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced an agreement to set a discretionary spending topline of $1.59 trillion for the next fiscal year but would also honor an earlier side-deal of an added $69 billion.
Johnson said he secured an extra $16 billion in cuts for this fiscal year to offset some of that.
However, GOP hardliners, including those in the House Freedom Caucus, have said they will not support anything above a total topline funding amount of $1.59 trillion.
On numerous occasions, they have intentionally derailed their own party’s initiatives in protest of the bipartisan agreement, bringing House floor proceedings to a standstill.
🚨BREAKING: Speaker Johnson “effectively quashes” the Senate’s foreign aid supplemental:
“The mandate was to secure America’s own border before sending additional foreign aid around the world…America deserves better than the Senate’s status quo.”
Good for @MikeJohnson https://t.co/6tKzghct6c
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) February 13, 2024
Given the division within his slim three-seat majority, Johnson will likely have to court Democratic support in the House even before dealing with the Democrat-held Senate.
Earlier this month, Johnson said it did not take long to realize that the U.S. Senate’s “bipartisan” border bill was going to be “dead on arrival” in the lower chamber.
During an interview on Fox News, Johnson spoke with host Laura Ingraham about the border crisis and President Joe Biden’s refusal to do much about it.
“It did not take long to realize that this is dead on arrival. There’s no way we could bring this through the House. The Senate expects us to pass a bill, a he is pooh of legislation that you just did a great job dismantling here. What it would do is actually further incentivize illegal immigration it,” he told the host.
“Would not resolve any of the problems. Not reform in any meaningful way the broken asylum system. The broken parole process and all the things that have created this catastrophe. And, by the way, meanwhile, it further empowers the very cabinet secretary who designed and created this mess,” he added.
“They don’t follow federal law. Why would we do this anyway? But the bill itself would actually do more harm than good, and that’s why we have said it’s a nonstarter over here in the house,” Johnson said.
“The American people are running the show here. We are the representatives of our constituents. The American people are on our side. They recognize this catastrophe has been disastrous for the country. Every state is a border state. And everybody knows it. Everybody traveling the country, Laura, since I have been speaker of the House. 15 states doing events. Doesn’t matter out in the West. Midwest, Long Island, the Deep South, and south Florida, the message is the same. Number one issue on the hearts and minds of the American people. We have to solve this crisis,” Johnson noted.
The Speaker continued: “I’m going to make this point again because Senator Schumer isn’t listening. Apparently, the president of the United States has the authority right now to fix this crisis. He has broad executive authority under the federal statutes, and Chuck Schumer knows it, and President Biden knows it. And he refuses to use that they could stop this, they could stop the flow immediately. They don’t want to, Laura. I think you alluded to a few moments ago exactly why that is.”
