Freshman Congressman calls out speaker's budget plan, says he should be more 'strategic' in future

Freshman Congressman Eric Burlison, R-Mo., took a jab at Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., over his government spending plan, saying that he wants to see him be more strategic in leadership in coming months. 

"I want our speaker to be successful," Burlison said on the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show.  "I think you're right. He's been given a bad hand. I think give him some grace. Let him get through this and then start expecting that he starts being more strategic."

The first deadline of the two-step "laddered" continuing resolution Congress passed last year is Jan. 19. The second appropriations deadline under the CR is Feb. 2.

House conservatives have been sharply critical of the spending agreement Johnson reached with Schumer, arguing that it doesn’t do enough to reduce the nation’s deficit. 

"The thing that I'm worried about is that Johnson sticks to this appropriation line, this top line number that he agreed with Chuck Schumer on," Burlison said. "Nowhere did the rest of Congress agree to these top line numbers."

Burlison said that he expects the House to pass another continuing resolution by the end of the week.

"It looks like by the end of this week, we're going to be passing a short-term continuing resolution – which, ironically, the speaker said that he would never do again," he said. "But we're going to do that. We're going to pass two of them that extend us into the middle of March."