White House reacts to Speaker’s ‘extreme’ stopgap funding bill 

The White House reacted to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) new stopgap funding bill Saturday, calling it “extreme.”

“This proposal is just a recipe for more Republican chaos and more shutdowns — full stop,” a statement from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre read. “With just days left before an Extreme Republican Shutdown — and after shutting down Congress for three weeks after they ousted their own leader — House Republicans are wasting precious time with an unserious proposal that has been panned by members of both parties.”

“An Extreme Republican Shutdown would put critical national security and domestic priorities at risk, including by forcing service members to work without pay,” Jean-Pierre continued. “This comes just days after House Republicans were forced to pull two of their own extreme appropriations bills from the floor — further deepening their dysfunction.”

The bill, a “laddered” continuing resolution (CR), would result in some funding running out in mid-January and the rest running out in early February. It tries to dissuade negotiation on a whole-of-government omnibus funding bill and attempts to push for the two houses of Congress to negotiate on the 12 regular funding bills.

“This two-step continuing resolution is a necessary bill to place House Republicans in the best position to fight for conservative victories,” Johnson posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “The bill will stop the absurd holiday-season omnibus tradition of massive, loaded up spending bills introduced right before the Christmas recess.”

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) had a positive response to the bill, saying he is “asking all congressional Republicans to support his decision.”

“Speaker Johnson did not create the mess we are in, but is acting responsibly to avoid a shutdown and put an end to the finely-honed process that has mortgaged our children’s future,” Sen. Johnson posted on X.     

Sen. Johnson’s Democratic colleague, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), appeared to have a polar opposite reaction to the CR.

“We are going to pass a clean short term CR. The only question is whether we do it stupidly and catastrophically or we do it like adults,” Schatz posted on X. “There’s nothing inherently conservative about making simple things super convoluted, and all of this nonsense costs taxpayer money.”

The bill does not include any aid to Israel amid its conflict with the Palestinian militant group Hamas. House GOP members passed a $14.3 billion package for aid to Israel earlier this month, but it also included $14.3 billion in cuts to IRS funding and earned fierce opposition from Democrats in Washington. 

Speaker Johnson’s fellow House Republican, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), also stated his opposition to the CR. “My opposition to the clean CR just announced by the Speaker to the @HouseGOP cannot be overstated. Funding Pelosi level spending & policies for 75 days – for future ‘promises,'” Roy posted to X.