⚡️ Special Edition: Johnson tries to claw his way back

THE TOP

Johnson tries to climb out of Trump’s trap

Punchbowl News Premium subscribers got this Special Edition in their inboxes earlier today. Subscribe to Premium to get our breaking news editions and texts before anyone else.

Speaker Mike Johnson, facing a tidal wave of criticism over his handling of the government funding crisis, thinks he has found his way out of a trap that President-elect Donald Trump set for him.

After holing up in his office all day with a rotating cast of senior House GOP lawmakers, Johnson has settled on a new strategy to fund federal agencies past midnight Friday while still fulfilling Trump’s request to lift the debt limit.

The House plans to vote tonight on a bill that will fund the federal government for three months while also suspending the debt limit until January 2027. That deadline would fall after the next midterm elections.

Here’s the bill. It’s a mere 116 pages. That’s a far cry from the last CR, which ran 1,547 pages.

The GOP-drafted legislation also extends the farm bill for one year, funds a set of expiring health care programs, sets aside $110 billion in disaster aid and wipes the PAYGO scorecard to zero. Most important for farm-state lawmakers – $30 billion in new emergency aid for farmers.

But gone is almost every other provision included in the bipartisan-negotiated CR, which Trump blew up Wednesday. Reforms to pharmacy benefit managers, an overhaul in outbound investment rules and changes to ethanol-based fuels were dropped.

Also not in this bill – a pay raise for members of Congress.

After the bill’s release, Trump backed the measure, saying: “SUCCESS in Washington.”

But House Democrats say their members will vote against this package, so it will probably fail under suspension. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the new proposal is “not serious.”

“It’s laughable,” Jeffries said. “Extreme MAGA Republicans are driving us to a government shutdown.”

What the next few hours will look like. House Republican leadership is going to put the bill on the floor on suspension of the rules. Any legislation considered in this manner requires a two-thirds majority for passage. With Democrats opposed, the bill will fail.

The GOP leadership will then try to get a rule reported out of the Rules Committee and hold a floor vote under a simple-majority threshold. It’s not clear if the Rules Committee will be able to report a rule, given its rightward membership.

House Democrats predict they will lose only a handful of members. But it might be enough to help Johnson pass the bill. That’s how close this vote will be.

In short, a lot is up in the air.

If this bill fails under a rule, Johnson is in big trouble and the federal government will lurch closer to a shutdown.

How will conservatives vote? The House Freedom Caucus met late this afternoon to discuss the bill. The group’s chair, Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), would not say how he would vote on the bill. Reps. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) and Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) both said they would vote against the bill, citing concerns over the debt limit. Norman is important because he is on the Rules Committee and leadership will need his vote to report a rule.

Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), the group’s former chair who lost a primary to a Trump-backed challenger, also said he will vote no. So did Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), another Freedom Caucus member who serves on the Rules panel. Trump trashed both men on Truth Social, even calling for a primary challenge to Roy.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) said she will vote yes.

– Jake Sherman, Melanie Zanona, John Bresnahan, Mica Soellner, Max Cohen and Laura Weiss