Democrats keep door open to Johnson continuing resolution as shutdown deadline nears

Democratic leaders in the House and Senate signaled openness on Monday to a Republican funding bill they had panned as unserious only days ago.

Over the weekend, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) unveiled a “laddered” continuing resolution that extends government funding in two stages, with some agencies lapsing on Jan. 19 and the rest on Feb. 3.

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Appropriators in both chambers, including senior Republicans, had dismissed the unorthodox approach as “convoluted,” while Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) called it a “nonstarter.”

Yet the party, seeing that Johnson kept spending cuts and other so-called poison pills out of the final measure, left the door open to backing it with days until a government shutdown.

Jeffries expressed reservations about the “bifurcation” of government funding in a “Dear Colleague” letter co-signed by his leadership team and called the absence of money for Ukraine “troublesome.” But in a shift, he told his conference Monday that Democratic leadership was “carefully evaluating” the resolution, which the House will vote on as soon as Tuesday.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the top Democrat in the Senate, openly praised Johnson for the proposal, in part because the speaker placed defense in the second tranche of spending bills. He cautioned Johnson, however, against changes as hard-line conservatives come out against the plan.

“For now, I am pleased that Speaker Johnson seems to be moving in our direction by advancing a CR that does not include the highly partisan cuts that Democrats have warned against,” Schumer said from the Senate floor on Monday.

Though his remarks fall short of an endorsement, they signal the Senate could take up the House bill, or some version of it, and avoid what might have been a pitched battle between the two chambers. That became all the more likely when Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), speaking from the Senate floor minutes later, supported Johnson’s approach as a “responsible measure that will keep the lights on.”

The path to passage is far from certain, however. At least eight Republicans, mostly members of the conservative Freedom Caucus, have come out against the measure.

In a chamber Johnson narrowly controls, that means Democrats will need to support the resolution, perhaps in large numbers, as he weighs whether to skip a procedural step and pass it under a suspension of the rules, in which case the measure must attract two-thirds support instead of the usual majority.

Conservatives had tanked several procedural votes under previous Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

Johnson is threading something of a middle ground, hoping to bring Democrats on board while avoiding his own ouster.

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The “laddered” approach, proposed by appropriator and Freedom Caucus member Andy Harris (R-MD), helps avoid the holiday omnibuses of past spending fights with its two-part extension into 2024. But the lack of spending cuts makes the proposal more appealing to Democrats.

The White House called Johnson’s CR a “recipe for more Republican chaos” on Saturday but stopped short of a veto threat.