To avert a government shutdown, Speaker Mike Johnson appears to be turning to a classic solution: letting the House work its will.
At least, sort of.
After Johnson pulled a continuing resolution that he negotiated with Democrats from consideration and then tried — and failed — to pass a CR with essentially just Republican votes on Thursday night, the speaker presented a plan to the GOP conference where he would put different aspects of the bill on the floor and see what passes.
The strategy, technically known as “dividing the question,” would allow Johnson to hold votes on different aspects of the CR before combining the successful parts. (Johnson used a similar method earlier this year when trying to pass a foreign aid package, moving separate votes for Ukraine, Israel and Indo-Pacific allies.)
But after meeting with House Republicans Friday afternoon and laying out the plan, which would have set up votes on three priorities — a government funding extension until March 14, $110 billion in disaster relief and separate aid for farmers — Johnson announced later Friday that the House would actually just hold one vote.
It would be the same bill the House rejected Thursday night, but contrary to President-elect Donald Trump’s wishes, a debt ceiling extension would not be part of the newest package. Instead, there is a “handshake agreement” between House GOP leaders and some Republicans who opposed Thursday’s stopgap funding measure to deal with the debt ceiling in a reconciliation bill, a source familiar with the plan told NOTUS.
The agreement is supposed to include tying a $1.5 trillion debt ceiling increase to $2.5 trillion in cuts, with Republicans still to determine what actually would be cut.
While it’s unclear how Democrats plan to vote on the adjusted legislation, the plan seems like a potential way out of the shutdown fiasco just hours before the deadline.
Democrats have signaled some openness to aspects of the plan, even though their position has been that they’ll only accept the original deal that Johnson reneged on. On Thursday night, the debt ceiling extension seemed to be their biggest issue with Johnson’s plan.
Either way, Democratic votes will be needed to pass the legislation. Republicans are bringing the bill to the floor under suspension of the rules, which requires a two-thirds majority for expedited consideration.
Should the bill pass, it would still need to go through the Senate, where any senator could hold up the legislation for days.
A government shutdown technically begins at midnight on Friday.
Editor’s Note: This piece has been updated to reflect the decision to bring one bill to the House floor.
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Reese Gorman is a reporter at NOTUS.
Em Luetkemeyer is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.