Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is coming under fire for remarks he made that would effectively guarantee a lengthy shutdown.
Johnson sent House members home earlier this week, leaving the Senate with a “continuing resolution” to fund the federal government. The House bill did not pass the Senate.
Now senators on both sides of the aisle are quietly attempting to craft new legislation to reopen the federal government.
But the Speaker is strongly suggesting his bill is the only one that he will allow to end the impasse.
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On Friday, Scripps News congressional correspondent Nathaniel Reed asked the Speaker whether he would bring a Senate bipartisan deal to a vote in the House.
Johnson twice indicated that he would not.
“There’s some talks right now that could be going on in the Senate floor. Democrats, not so much of the leadership level, but kind of within the ranks of the Democratic Party, having conversations with their Republican colleagues about a path forward,” Reed told Johnson. “If they reach a bipartisan agreement, a negotiation is successful, and they vote on something over there, would you put it up for a vote over here?”
“Well, the House has done its job,” Johnson responded. “All they have to do is pass the clean, continuing resolution, and then we can talk about all this substance, but, I mean, I can’t project the future of what would happen — all the devil’s always in the details.”
Reed then pressed Johnson: “I just want to be clear here. Are you ruling out putting up a compromise on the floor for a vote if the Senate reaches one?”
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“I am right now,” the Speaker replied, “because we sent a clean, continuing resolution.”
Critics blasted the Speaker.
Justin Slaughter, a former federal government official commented, noting that “Dems are actually successfully starting to fracture GOP on health care; that’s the only reason Johnson needs to say this.”
He added, “I see minimal chance [government] reopens before the 15th.”
U.S. Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) noted, “Democrats want to work across the aisle to end the shutdown and protect Americans’ health care. Speaker Johnson is very clear that House Republicans have no interest in that.”
Michael Linden, a former Senate aide, wrote: “EVERY enacted appropriations bill for the last decade has been bipartisan. It has to be because it needs 60 in the Senate. By ‘ruling out’ a bipartisan compromise, Johnson is promising to extend the shut down.”
U.S. Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) added, “Translation: House Republicans are RULING OUT reopening the government. The American people can’t afford your inaction, Mr. Speaker.”
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