Speaker Mike Johnson, addressing House Republicans behind closed doors just three weeks before the government is set to shut down, said he and other GOP leaders are waiting on direction from the White House for next steps on government funding.
In particular, appropriators are waiting on “anomaly” requests from President Donald Trump’s budget aides, Johnson said, according to three people in the room who were granted anonymity to describe the private remarks.
That’s a reference to departures from prior-year funding levels that would need to be embedded in a stopgap measure to address current spending needs.
Johnson was conspicuously silent on one contentious aspect of an expected short-term punt: how long it would last.
Democrats and GOP appropriators are eyeing November or December, buying time for further negotiations on fiscal 2026 funding and other matters, while conservative hard-liners and some in the White House want an extension into next year — in part, to avoid what they believe could be an unsavory bipartisan deal with Democrats.
Johnson said he prefers to enter a conference negotiation with the Senate over full-year bills — three of which have already passed in each chamber. But he said he is ready to move a continuing resolution instead to avoid a shutdown, the people said.
House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) also spoke, telling colleagues there had been “good discussions” with Democrats and Senate counterparts on a compromise “minibus” package of three fiscal 2026 bills. That package could be attached to a CR keeping other departments and agencies open past the Sept. 30 shutdown deadline.
