Speaker Mike Johnson advanced a short-term funding bill to keep the government open in a similar fashion as his predecessor, but the lawmakers who booted Rep. Kevin McCarthy don’t plan on axing the new House leader for it.
Mr. Johnson needed Democrats to pass his two-step bill, beating a Friday shutdown deadline and keeping the government funded until early next year. Lawmakers across the conference have said they wanted to give the Louisiana Republican time to settle in, but cracks in the unified facade are already showing.
Many hard-line conservatives were disappointed in Mr. Johnson‘s choice to pass a clean stopgap without any GOP wishlist policies attached, like beefing up U.S./Mexico border security.
Rep. Chip Roy, Texas Republican, said he wanted to give Mr. Johnson time to get going, but the stopgap “perpetuates the very system my constituents sent me here to oppose.”
Mr. Roy added, “That is precisely what was put down on Saturday Oct. 1 that then resulted in the motion to vacate against Kevin that following Tuesday, and here we are doing the same thing.”
None of the lawmakers in the group of eight that ousted Mr. McCarthy voted in favor of the bill. But they contend the situation is not his fault and that they’re willing to give Mr. Johnson a grace period. It also means the lawmakers fired Mr. McCarthy, California Republican, for more than just needing Democrats to keep the government open.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, who filed the motion to vacate, said Mr. McCarthy was bounced for “a variety of reasons.” The Florida Republican told The Washington Times that the former speaker had time to build a strategy to pass spending bills one at a time, while Mr. Johnson has been working under a truncated schedule.
“This is the last McCarthy play we have to run, and I know Speaker Johnson doesn’t even want to do it,” Mr. Gaetz said.
He added that Mr. McCarthy had time to develop a plan to pass spending bills, but didn’t manage to pass any until just a few weeks were left until the government was on the precipice of a shutdown in September.
“If in seven months this is the Johnson governance strategy, we’ll all be real disappointed in that outcome,” Mr. Gaetz continued. “But I am as confident as ever that is not where we will be in seven months.”
Rep. Bob Good, Virginia Republican and another member of the eight, voted against Mr. Johnson‘s stopgap bill, but didn’t think the move should be the new speaker’s undoing.
He likened Mr. Johnson‘s situation to a quarterback entering a game trailing by 35 points.
“While we support him and we certainly don’t want to cut our quarterback, we want to keep playing our quarterback, but we want him to call the plays that give us a chance to win,” Mr. Good said. “I don’t think the [continuing resolution] is one of those.”
Mr. Johnson‘s leash is not infinite. Republicans expect him to adhere to sought-after spending cuts that go below the debt-ceiling deal hammered out by Mr. McCarthy and President Biden and to not agree on more Ukraine aid — or to at least hold out until the White House returns with a strategy for the region.
Rep. Eli Crane, Arizona Republican, told The Times that members of the eight agreed to give Mr. Johnson a grace period, but it does have an expiration date.
“I think he’s still under that, but he knows that it’s not gonna last forever,” he said.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.