First big tests for Speaker Johnson: Federal spending deadline plus Ukraine, Israel aid package

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., faces his first major tests as leader of the chamber in passing a federal budget that can please his party and still pass the Democratic Senate as well as aid for Ukraine and Israel. 

President Biden has proposed a $106 billion aid package for both Ukraine and Israel. Johnson will have to decide if he should put it up for a vote or propose an alternate aid package. 

Given criticism from some in the House GOP conference over spending more money on Ukraine, moving a package through the chamber won’t be an easy task.

When asked if he supports additional funding for the war in Ukraine, Johnson said, “We all do. We’re going to have conditions on that so we’re working through it.”

He didn’t elaborate on the conditions. There are no further planned votes in the House this week. 

The 45-day Continuing Resolution (CR) that Congress previously passed to avoid a government shutdown expires on Nov. 17. Voting in the House was frozen for 3 weeks during the search for a House speaker after the removal of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy so the chamber lost time in the appropriations process. 

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., a member of the House Budget Committee, told Just the News on Wednesday that the GOP-led House might pass a temporary spending bill that would run through January.

Johnson has floated the need for a temporary CR to his colleagues in the House GOP conference. The timelines he suggested were funding through Jan. 15 or April 15 but said he would leave the final decision up to conference. The funding levels of that CR have not been determined yet. 

“It is very possible that there will be Democrat and Republican votes working together. That being said, I think that just how he is going to lead, it is going to make it easier for everyone to follow his lead,” Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., said of Johnson and the next federal funding deadline. 

The White House and congressional leaders will soon be negotiating an agreed upon level of federal spending. House Republicans have called for spending reductions beyond what was in Biden and McCarthy’s debt limit deal. 

It is unclear if Johnson and President Biden discussed the federal budget issue at their meeting on Thursday. 

If a CR passes, the House GOP would then need to complete the rest of its single-subject appropriations bills in the hopes that they pass in the Democratic-led Senate.