How a new Republican plan could create rolling government shutdowns over the next few months

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) floated a unique strategy to avert a government shutdown, which looms in two weeks. His proposal involves passing a “laddered” continuing resolution that would extend funding for individual government agencies for varying durations.

Johnson said Thursday that House Republicans are mulling over the new stopgap funding measure. Johnson met with the Senate GOP conference on Wednesday to discuss a temporary spending bill that runs through Jan. 15 but teased the new approach to reporters the following day.

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“My initial idea was to extend that to Jan. 15 to get us beyond sort of the Christmas rush,” Johnson said. “But some of my colleagues have other ideas as well. One idea that was pitched this morning, to be very frank with you, is a laddered CR.”

The “laddered” continuing resolution appears to create a series of rolling shutdown deadlines, pushing specific government agencies to pass their separate funding bills, and could lead to a partial shutdown regardless.

“I’ll unpack for you what that means here in the coming days, but potentially, you would do a CR that extends individual pieces of the appropriations process, individual bills. We’ll see how that goes,” Johnson said of the continuing resolution with unclear details.

Sources familiar with the Republican conference said Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) launched the “laddered” continuing resolution discussion.

As the Nov. 17 deadline nears, House Republicans are trying to make the path clear to avoid a shutdown. Johnson is committed to passing the 12 appropriations bills separately as opposed to putting unrelated spending measures into omnibus packages, a move the Senate favors.

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Uncertainty swarms about what measures House Republicans will use to keep the government funded, but the conference shares a desire to pass a funding bill promptly.

The Washington Examiner reached out to Harris and Johnson’s offices for comment.