New House Speaker Mike Johnson has weeks to help prevent a government shutdown

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is getting a crash course in running the chamber, for a job that’s second in the line of presidential succession behind Vice President Kamala Harris.

Johnson assumed the speakership on Oct. 25 after winning unanimous backing from House Republicans in their slim Republican majority. Johnson, representing the deep-red northwestern Louisiana 4th Congressional District, where in 2020 former President Donald Trump beat President Joe Biden 61.3% to 37.2%, faces a pressing piece of business in keeping the government open past Nov. 17.

HOUSE ELECTS MIKE JOHNSON AS SPEAKER AFTER THREE WEEKS AT AN IMPASSE

The current short-term federal spending bill expires then. So, the Johnson-led House will have to reach an agreement with the Democratic Senate and Biden White House on a longer-term spending deal, which could run as long as the end of this fiscal year, on Sept. 30, 2024.

Johnson, 51, wants to show House Republicans have their own, conservative plan for funding the government and aren’t itching for a shutdown. Hours after assuming the speaker’s gavel, Johnson, first elected to the House in 2016 after two years as a state legislator, unveiled an ambitious and aggressive voting schedule over the next several weeks. The idea is to make sure the House has passed all outstanding annual appropriations bills by Nov. 17.

The proposed House spending bills are generally at much lower levels than those written in the Senate, usually with bipartisan input from Republicans in the minority, along with the Biden White House. Each offers multiple opportunities for clashes with the House GOP majority, which played a major role in opening up the speakership in the first place, with the chamber’s most conservative Republicans leading the successful expulsion of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) from the position, who they considered insufficiently committed to cutting government spending.

Johnson’s spending bill calendar at least commits the House to considering its own version of appropriations measures, a necessary first step in eventually finding a compromise. The effort began with a planned vote on a spending bill for Energy and Water Development, which oversees funding for the Department of Energy, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and other agencies.

Johnson’s proposed schedule would continue with early November votes on spending bills for the Legislative Branch, which oversees funding for the House of Representatives (the Senate Legislative Branch oversees funding for the U.S. Senate), the U.S. Capitol, the Library of Congress, and other legislative branch functions. Then a vote that same week on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, which oversees funding for the Department of the Interior, the EPA, the U.S. Forest Service, and a number of independent agencies. Along with Transportation, House and Urban Development, and Related Agencies, which oversees funding for the Department of Transportation, HUD, among other agencies.

House lawmakers would then consider appropriations bills for Financial Services and General Government appropriations, which oversee funding for the Department of the Treasury, the Executive Office of the President, and other government functions. That same week would further see consideration of an appropriations bill for Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, which oversees funding for the Department of Commerce, the Department of Justice, NASA, and other agencies.

Under Johnson’s spending bill plan, the week of Monday, Nov. 13, would see consideration of an appropriations proposal for Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, which oversees funding for the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Labor, and other agencies. Plus, consideration of the appropriations bill for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies, which oversees funding for the USDA (except the Forest Service) and other agencies.

The House was initially scheduled to adjourn for a two-week recess during the first two weeks of November.

A Fast Rise in the House
Progress on the annual federal spending bills will be an early test for Johnson’s speakership. He nabbed the job after a three-week deadlock that prohibited lawmakers from advancing legislation and voting on must-pass legislation.

Republican lawmakers finally managed to coalesce around a single nominee to secure the speaker’s gavel and reopen the lower chamber. But not before considering, and then discarding, several high-ranking House Republicans, including House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH). The speaker candidacies of Scalise and Emmer collapsed before they even received votes on the House floor, where they were sure to lose. Jordan stood for two rounds of House voting before Republicans yanked him as their nominee once it was clear he couldn’t claim the 217 votes necessary to be speaker.

The House has been paralyzed since Oct. 3, when lawmakers voted to oust McCarthy, leaving the chamber unable to conduct legislative business until a new leader was appointed.

“To my colleagues, I want to thank you all for the trust you have instilled in me to lead us in this historic and unprecedented moment that we are in,” Johnson said in a floor speech shortly after winning the speakership. “The challenge before us is great, but the time for action is now, and I will not let you down.”

The Louisiana Republican emerged victorious after benefiting from a lower profile that allowed him to avoid the fierce opposition other candidates received from centrist and far-right members.

Johnson has cemented himself as a staunch conservative and the former chairman of the Republican Study Committee. He has also positioned himself as a key member of the Judiciary Committee and a leader of GOP efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Those efforts brought Johnson under tough scrutiny from House Democrats, who denounced the speaker as an election denier who is unfit to lead the chamber.

“House Republicans have put their names behind someone who has been called ‘the most important architect of the Electoral College objection,’” said Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-CA) in a floor speech on Wednesday.

However, several Republicans have stood behind Johnson’s efforts — with Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) yelling out in support: “Damn right!”

But Johnson’s record could prove to harm some vulnerable Republicans come next year, as House Democrats are already planning to weaponize those votes throughout the 2024 cycle.

Shortly after Johnson won the speakership, Rep. Annie Kuster (D-NH), chairwoman of the New Democrat Coalition, issued a statement against his speakership, calling him “a danger to both our domestic and national security.” Kuster specifically hit Johnson over his voting record against abortion and to overturn the 2020 election — two issues that helped House Democrats with their better-than-expected performance in the midterm elections.

“After weeks of dysfunction, House Republicans have elevated a man who disregards personal freedoms, the safety of our allies, and American democracy to be second in line to the presidency,” Kuster said in a statement. “We will continue fighting for what is right, even in the face of chaos. Republicans had a choice: continue down the far-right path that has paralyzed Congress, or finally choose reason over extremism.”

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Leaders of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, House Democrats’ main fundraising arm, also indicated those issues would come into play next year, predicting voters will “reject Republican extremism and help Democrats take back the majority.”

“If so-called Republican moderates were at all serious about making life better for everyday Americans, they would have worked with Democrats to find a bipartisan path forward,” DCCC Chairwoman Suzan DelBene (D-WA) said. “Instead, they abandoned the American people for Mike Johnson’s extreme agenda to pass a national abortion ban, defund law enforcement, and slash Social Security and Medicare.”