Speaker Mike Johnson was on “Fly Out Day” from the Punchbowl News Townhouse Thursday, and he made a lot of news.
That’s the idea of this show: get key lawmakers to talk about power in Congress.
Johnson addressed a lot of topics during his appearance – Jeffrey Epstein, Vladimir Putin, redistricting and the battle for control of the House in 2026. You have to watch the entire episode, which is available above on YouTube or on our podcast feed.
But we wanted to dig into some exceedingly newsy highlights from the first episode, presented by Meta.
Obamacare. Johnson cracked the door open – slightly – to extending enhanced Obamacare subsidies that expire at the end of 2025. Without an extension, millions of Americans could see the cost of their health care soar or lose coverage.
We scooped Thursday that nine vulnerable House Republicans were pushing for a year-long extension of the tax credits, which help Americans on the Obamacare exchange afford health insurance.
Here’s Johnson’s first in-depth comments on the issue:
This comment is going to turn a lot of heads in the Capitol. In reality, including an extension of Obamacare premium tax credits in a funding bill at some point this year could help unlock a deal with Democrats.
But the issue is divisive among House Republicans, to say the least. And the idea of changing the Obamacare subsidies or scaling them back — by tightening the income limits, for instance — could turn off Democrats.
But Johnson’s comments show that there’s a potential deal to be had here.
A government shutdown. Johnson doesn’t want to shut the federal government down, he told us. And he’s talking at this point – 25 days before federal funding runs out – as if Republicans are going to be reasonable in their stopgap funding bill at the end of the month.
Johnson said that he and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have had “some conversations” about keeping the government open past Sept. 30.
“There are reasonable people on both sides who understand this is a basic function and responsibility of the government, so we’re working towards that,” Johnson said. “Final decisions have not been made, OK? But a lot of very, I think, productive discussions [are] going on about potentially the necessity of a CR before Oct. 1.”
The White House prefers a CR into the first quarter of 2026. House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) wants a stopgap to November so that the “Four Corners” – the top appropriators from both chambers – can continue negotiating.
Johnson said he is “double-minded” on the issue. In other words, he understands the early 2026 strategy and Cole’s preferred November push.
The speaker is quite bullish on negotiating a compromise package of spending bills with the Senate. He said that there is a “very good shot” that the House and Senate could enter into a formal negotiation on the MilCon-VA spending bill, packaging it with three other appropriations bills in the coming months.
A crime bill. Johnson said he’s discussing passing a crime package, as President Donald Trump has been asking for.
Johnson said the legislation, which is still being drafted, would seek to tighten various policies, including those on juvenile crime.
“The same people that were behind [defund the police] are in favor of these restrictive policies that don’t allow the cops to do their job,” Johnson said. “And I think that’s a big problem. We’re looking at in what way we could have federal legislation that would address the root of those problems. Because I think that, as demonstrated in [D.C.], I think you can solve it if you just put the right resources and time and energy into [it.]”
Some other odds and ends:
1) Johnson said Republicans are working on a second reconciliation package. The speaker added that the package will include some items that were “left on the cutting room floor during the last reconciliation bill.”
We asked Johnson multiple times if that package will include further Medicaid changes beyond the One Big Beautiful Bill. The Louisiana Republican wouldn’t “forecast” what would be in the package.
“I don’t want to put my thumb on the scale,” Johnson said. “I want this to be member-driven, as the last one was, because that’s how we got it done.”
2) Johnson claimed Democrats started the redistricting wars that have roiled the House – something that Democrats, of course, would take issue with.
“This started with Eric Holder,” Johnson said, speaking of former President Barack Obama’s attorney general who chairs the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. “They’ve been doing this for longer than a decade. OK? And blue states have gerrymandered Republican representation entirely out – entirely. So both sides have some fault in this thing.”
Also … Scalise’s communications director is leaving. Lauren Fine, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s longtime communications director, is leaving Capitol Hill to join Google’s global communications and public affairs team. Fine will work on policy communications.
Fine has worked for Scalise for more than eight years. Fine’s departure is just the latest of several senior Scalise aides that have left this year.
Kerry Rom will be Scalise’s next communications director. She was deputy communications director to Johnson. Rom was also deputy communications director for Sen. Tim Scott’s (R-S.C.) presidential campaign and worked at Targeted Victory, the NRCC and RNC.
