WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson on Saturday announced a two-step plan to temporarily extended funding and avert a government shutdown next week.
Johnson, R-La., facing a shutdown deadline that goes into effect at 12:01 a.m. EST on Nov. 18, formally announced the plan during a conference call with fellow Republicans on Saturday, CNN reported.
The first continuing resolution would extend funding until Jan. 19, 2024, The Washington Post reported. The measure would include funding for military and veterans programs, agriculture and food agencies, and cash to the departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, according to the newspaper.
The second phase of funding would prevent a shutdown until Feb. 2, 2014, and would include cash to the State, Justice, Commerce, Labor and Health and Human Services departments, the Post reported.
The proposal extends funding at current levels and does not include more aid for Israel or Ukraine, according to CNN. It also excludes funding at the U.S. border with Mexico, The Associated Press reported.
“This two-step continuing resolution is a necessary bill to place House Republicans in the best position to fight for conservative victories,” Johnson said in a statement that was also posted to X, formerly known as Twitter. “The bill will stop the absurd holiday-season omnibus tradition of massive, loaded-up spending bills introduced right before the Christmas recess.”
This two-step continuing resolution is a necessary bill to place House Republicans in the best position to fight for conservative victories. The bill will stop the absurd holiday-season omnibus tradition of massive, loaded up spending bills introduced right before the Christmas…
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) November 11, 2023
The so-called “laddered” continuing resolution has already been rejected by Democrats and the White House, according to the Post.
The novel two-tiered proposal has also run into opposition from several Republican lawmakers, the newspaper reported. Johnson has a razor-thin margin and can afford to lose no more than four GOP votes if the measure comes to the floor of the House.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, tweeted that the bill was “100% clean.”
“And I 100 % oppose,” Roy said.
It’s a 100% clean. And I 100% oppose. https://t.co/uantzAUroV
— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) November 11, 2023
Roy said he objected to the proposal because the bill funds the government at current levels, the Post reported.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, called the staggered funding plan “the craziest, stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of,” the Post reported.
A laddered measure like the one Johnson has proposed has never been attempted by Congress, according to the newspaper.
In 1991, a continuing resolution extended federal funding for 45 days but gave a longer deadline to the State Department and foreign operations so it could accommodate negotiations between President George H.W. Bush and Congress as they haggled over economic development aid to Israel, the Post reported.
