Speaker Johnson sticks by deal struck with Dems despite GOP complaints

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he is sticking by a top-line spending deal that he struck with congressional Democrats and the White House this month amid calls from hard-line conservatives to scrap the plan and come up with an alternative.

“After weeks of hard-fought negotiations, we achieved a strong top-line agreement that allows our appropriations committee and all those who work on this to complete the appropriations process. It’s an important part of keeping the government running,” Johnson said in a brief statement to the press.

“Our topline agreement remains,” Johnson later said. “We are getting our next steps together, and we are working toward a robust appropriations process. So stay tuned for all that.”

Johnson took no questions.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) addresses reporters following the last votes of the week on Friday, January 12, 2024. Johnson has been in talks with members of the House Freedom Caucus and others to discuss changing the top-line number for funding the government as the first deadline looms next Friday. (Allison Robbert)

His statement did not stop some of those pushing him to rip up the agreement from holding out hope that the Speaker could push for some of their alternative plans.

“Well, he has not rescinded it yet. But I am quite certain he is legitimately considering alternatives,” said Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. He called for lower spending levels and a change in border policies.

A photo of Johnson’s prepared remarks snapped by a Bloomberg reporter revealed that the Speaker had slightly adjusted his statement from the prepared “we are sticking with the topline agreement” to “our topline agreement remains.”

Good was among a group of hardliners who huddled with Johnson on the House floor just before the Speaker delivered his statement. The members this week have pushed Johnson to rip up the agreement that Johnson announced over the weekend, which is largely in line with the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) spending caps and side-spending agreement with a $1.59 trillion plus around $69 billion in additional budget tweaks.

But that push has been met with additional exasperation and frustration from other Republican appropriators and members — who are pushing Johnson to move forward with the current topline deal. 

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Earlier in the morning, Johnson met with a group of moderate and swing-district lawmakers who urged him to stay the course. And contrary to Good’s statement, Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) left that meeting with moderates saying — based on his “informed intuition” rather than an explicit statement from Johnson — that the Speaker is not considering trying to renegotiate the topline deal.

In his statement to the press, Johnson said he is hearing from all sides.

“In keeping up with my commitment to bring members into the legislative process, I’ve spoken and received feedback this week from many members all across the Republican Conference. That’s a very important part of this,” Johnson said. “When I became Speaker, I committed to decentralizing the speaker’s Speaker’s office and making this a member-driven process.”

But he touted what he saw as wins from the Democratic-controlled Senate and White House in the spending deal, such as an additional clawback of pandemic aid and  

“The topline agreement includes hard-won concessions to cut more billions, as you know, from the IRS giveaway and the COVID-era slush funds,” Johnson said. “It replaces accounting gimmicks from the prior FRA [Fiscal Responsibility Act] agreement. And it brings Congress much closer to regular order, which is our big commitment here.”

The squabbling over the topline agreement comes as the government faces a partial government shutdown deadline in just a week due to Jan. 19, and a full government shutdown deadline on Feb. 2.

Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), after huddling on the floor with Johnson and other hardliners, acknowledged that the ultimate decision rests with Johnson — “I’m not the Speaker,” he said — but was quick to tick off the short list of demands conservatives are pushing. 

“We would like to see much lower numbers — obviously, we’re bankrupting the country. And we would like to see border made an issue in this. Actual border security, not just laws that are going to be ignored. That’s essentially … where we are,” Perry said. 

Mike Lillis contributed. Updated at 11:53 a.m.