In his first major showdown, an unyielding conservative return

Just weeks into his new job, Speaker Mike Johnson has already learned a valuable, if painful, lesson: Being an uncompromising conservative hardliner is much easier from the back benches of the House of Representatives than from the leadership suites.

The relief bill that he pushed through the House of Representatives on Tuesday with overwhelming support from Democrats over the objections of a solid block of Republicans was an almost exact replica of the funding package he opposed six weeks ago, when he was an obscure lawmaker. was out of parliament. Louisiana.

But as speaker, Mr Johnson was forced to bow to the political reality that spending proposals designed to appease the far right cannot become law in a divided government. In doing so, he showed a pragmatic side that surprised Democrats and frustrated allies on the right, who only days ago were thrilled by his sudden rise.

Mr. Johnson made the calculation that Republicans in the House of Representatives, divided and known these days more for their bitterness than their achievements, could not afford to be held responsible for a crippling government shutdown before Thanksgiving.

So he went hat in hand to the Democrats to save the Republicans from themselves again – and the Democrats delivered. That same scenario cost Representative Kevin McCarthy of California the speakership last month. But Mr. Johnson won’t face a challenge at this point, with Republicans cutting him some slack since he was new to the role. They say Mr. Johnson is not Mr. McCarthy. Not yet anyway.

“He has one thing unique about him,” said Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, one of 93 Republicans who broke with the speaker over the spending deal but still supports him. “We trust what he says.”

Despite his compromises to avoid a shutdown, Mr. Johnson has another advantage over Mr. McCarthy: The far right sees Mr. Johnson much more as one of their own compared to Mr. McCarthy, a reputation that Louisianans had before the election of Tuesday tried to strengthen. to vote.

Asked why he was having trouble winning support for the bill from arch-conservative Republicans, Mr. Johnson replied: “I’m one of the arch-conservatives, okay?”

Still, the fact that the stopgap continuation of the resolution was on its way to quick approval in the Senate as early as Thursday could not be disguised. That was a far cry from what the far right would have written.

They would have preferred a program full of sharp cuts and right-wing policies that would drive Democrats crazy and trigger a shutdown that some of them were eager to bring about. Instead, it was essentially a “clean” resolution that temporarily maintained funding at the level set in 2022 when the Democratic triumvirate of Speaker Nancy Pelosi; the majority leader, Chuck Schumer; and President Biden was in charge.

It was a big deal for Republicans in the House of Representatives.

“That’s the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill that Republicans roundly opposed last year,” Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy said on Fox Business Network. “It’s not a good start.”

Mr. Johnson acknowledged the dissatisfaction but said he was unwilling to risk a shutdown while he was still on his feet and making his way around the speaker’s office in the Capitol.

“I haven’t even been at work for three weeks, right?” he said. “I can’t turn an aircraft carrier around overnight.”

The speaker sought to emphasize that the relief bill was different from the bill that ended Mr. McCarthy’s speakership in one key respect: It staggered the deadlines for funding government agencies, with some spending expiring on Jan. 19 and the rest on February 2.

Mr Johnson said this approach could avoid the hated holiday spending pile-up, which in the past has led to the passage of massive legislation that funds the entire federal government without much scrutiny. Now the House and Senate would have time to finalize their spending bills, he argued.

“This was a very important first step in taking us to the next phase so we can change the way Washington works,” Mr Johnson said.

But Mr. Johnson’s innovation was seen by others on both sides of the aisle mainly as a gimmick for a temporary spending plan that gave Democrats what they wanted and left conservatives shaking their heads.

Top Democrats still trying to come to grips with the new chairman said they were encouraged by Mr. Johnson’s bipartisan approach, especially after his first legislative move was to commit $14.3 billion in aid to Israel, which most of Congress wants to make cuts to the IRS that Democrats despise. Democrats had braced for more partisan maneuvering, but instead found Mr. Johnson amenable to compromise, albeit with a complicated structure they deemed unnecessary.

Mr. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said he was “encouraged and very cautious” that Mr. Johnson had passed a temporary spending measure “that omits exactly the kind of hard-right cuts that would have been a non-starter for Democrats .” He said he consulted with the speaker about how Mr. Schumer called the “crazy” staggered bill to reduce Democratic resistance.

The interim bill is hardly the end of Mr Johnson’s spending challenge. He vowed not to propose another stopgap measure, meaning Republicans in the House of Representatives must now pass a series of spending bills that have already tied them in knots, and then reach a compromise with the Senate and the House early next year White House.

Not an easy task, but Mr Johnson said he was determined to get through it.

“I’m done with short-term CRs,” he said, using the acronym for an ongoing solution to keep government funding flowing. “We are resolved.”

But if he falters in the coming days on spending, aid to Ukraine and Israel, or the border security provisions demanded by Republicans, the initial patience of some on the far right may wear thin.

“This better not be the model of approach,” Mr. Roy said of Tuesday’s measure. “Or there will be trouble in the so-called paradise.”