If Speaker Mike Johnson has settled on a new plan for funding the government, he still isn’t talking about it publicly.
His six-month stopgap spending plan — linked with legislation requiring proof of citizenship for voting, known as the SAVE Act — failed on the House floor Wednesday night as the Republican conference remains divided over government funding.
“And so now we go back to the playbook. We’ll draw up another play, and we’ll come up with a solution,” Johnson told reporters immediately following the vote. “I am already talking to colleagues about many ideas. We have time.”
Government funding is set to run out on Oct. 1. And House business is scheduled for just seven of the days remaining before that deadline. Confidence remains high on Capitol Hill that a government shutdown will be averted, but the path forward is unclear.
Top GOP appropriators have been urging Johnson behind the scenes to consider a shorter three-month stopgap spending bill without divisive policy add-ons. But so far, even House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) has not been clued in on what options Johnson is weighing.
“I’ll wait to see what he thinks we ought to do next. He never talked about a Plan B,” Cole told reporters Wednesday evening. “He’s got several options, but he hasn’t told me what option he wants to proceed with next because he very much hoped this would work.”
Johnson finds himself in a familiar position, likely having to rely on Democrats to help pass spending legislation like he did back in March. That’s because a subset of his conference have said they won’t be supporting any short-term spending bill.
On the other side of the aisle, House Democrats still won’t entertain another stopgap bill with GOP policy priorities attached.
“We need a spending agreement consistent with the top lines of the fiscal responsibility act that allows us to complete our work by the end of this calendar year,” Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Wednesday night.
Senate action ahead: Cole did warn that his colleagues who voted down the spending bill and citizenship voting combo Wednesday “opened the door for the Senate” to act.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is expected to move as soon as Thursday to set up votes on a Senate-crafted spending bill next week. The procedural votes on that could begin Monday.
And yet: There are still significant doubts that the Senate will swoop in and take the lead. Schumer may get the ball rolling, but is still expected to wait to see what the House can accomplish.
“The Senate will do what they do, but I believe it will originate in the House,” House Appropriations ranking member Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) said Wednesday.
The Trump factor: Former President Donald Trump continues to call for Republicans to shut the government down unless the proof of citizenship for voting legislation is attached to a short-term spending bill.
Cole is sure Johnson won’t go down that path.
“I’m very confident we’re not going to let the government shut down. He’s never let that happen, and he’s taken a lot of criticism from some people when he has had to make those decisions,” he said.
Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.
