House Speaker Mike Johnson has laid out his two-step plan to keep the government open.
For Johnson’s plan, the “Further Continuing Appropriations and Other Extensions Act of 2024,” most of the money will run out on February 2, and some will run out on January 19. Reports say that this would mean that the House and Senate would have to negotiate over 12 separate bills to fund the government instead of one big funding package.
For government funding programs and agencies that fall under regular appropriations bills, January 19 is the deadline. These bills cover areas like agriculture, rural development, the Food and Drug Administration, transportation, housing, and urban development.
Other programs have deadlines that go all the way into 2024. For example, the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 has a deadline of September 30, 2024.
He said that the plan was a way to “fight for conservative victories” by pushing for “fiscal responsibility” and “meaningful changes” to the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border and aid to Ukraine.
“This two-step continuing resolution is a necessary bill to place House Republicans in the best position to fight for conservative victories,” Johnson said in a statement. “The bill will stop the absurd holiday-season omnibus tradition of massive, loaded-up spending bills introduced right before the Christmas recess. Separating the CR from the supplemental funding debates places our conference in the best position to fight for fiscal responsibility, oversight over Ukraine aid, and meaningful policy changes at our southern border.”
The bill doesn’t include any money for Ukraine or Israel because the House has already put forward a plan to give $14.5 billion to Israel in response to the attack on October 7 by the Islamic terrorist group Hamas.
According to the news source, Senate Democrats are not likely to support the bill because one senator called it “super convoluted” and said that looking into such “nonsense” would waste taxpayer money.
“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. There’s nothing inherently conservative about making simple things super convoluted, and all of this nonsense costs taxpayer money,” Democratic Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz said.
The new GOP House Speaker made headlines last week when it was revealed he has a very different financial picture than his predecessors, who had assets worth millions of dollars and actively traded stocks.
Johnson’s latest annual financial disclosure report, which he turned in in August, says that he doesn’t own any stocks and only has three debts: a home mortgage worth up to $500,000 from 2013, a personal loan of up to $50,000 from 2016, and a home equity line of credit of up to $50,000 that he got in 2019.
A government ethics expert at Harmon Curran, Brett Kappel, said it was “very unusual for a member not to have to disclose at least one bank account.” Jordan Libowitz, another ethics expert, was quoted recently saying that Johnson’s disclosure was “strange” and could make him “ripe for influence buying.”
Republicans defended Johnson amid the attacks from liberals.
“For years, we’ve heard calls and demands for members of Congress to look more like the people they represent,” Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., a close Johnson ally, told Fox News Digital. “Today, we have a speaker who is not independently wealthy, who does not own or trade stocks and, per House financial reporting disclosures rules, is not required to disclose his federal employee retirement funds.
“It’s clear now with Speaker Johnson at the helm that the people’s House is run by just that — a man of the people,” she continued. “I find it deeply hypocritical that Democrats and the leftist media are upset about Speaker Johnson when their own former Speaker Nancy Pelosi is a multimillionaire.”
In her most recent annual report, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she owned millions of dollars worth of assets, such as different stocks.
