Congressman Mike Johnson talks about potential government shutdown
“Logistics are a challenge.” House Speaker Mike Johnson said a brief government shutdown may be inevitable.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said on the premiere of “Melania” that he has no confidence that a government shutdown will be avoided, even though the Senate agreed to a deal on Jan. 29 to fund parts of the government.
The agreement removes the Department of Lands funding bill from the funding package and replaces it with a two-week continuing resolution to allow the department to negotiate reforms. It is unclear when the revised funding package will be sent back to the House.
“The Senate is doing its job tonight,” Johnson said on the red carpet at the Trump Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. “The Senate is doing its job tonight, and I’m going to have to make some difficult decisions later this evening about how quickly we can bring members back.”
In an interview with USA TODAY in Premier, Johnson pointed to the 72-hour notice for reinstatement for members in the parliamentary rules. “The logistics are a challenge,” he said, adding that he “believes” the earliest the House of Commons can act on the deal is Monday, February 2, adding that the country will “inevitably” face a short shutdown.
“We wanted the Senate to pass the 12 spending bills we introduced, and the House did its job,” Johnson said. “However, we will deal with the situation as it develops.”
The deal is a major victory for Democrats, who have pushed sweeping reforms to President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign in the wake of the killing of ICU nurse Alex Preti by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis. This is the second shooting by federal agents in the Twin Cities this month. On January 7th, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents murdered 37-year-old poet Renee Good.
When asked about possible reforms to ICE and DHS, Johnson singled out the executive branch and said, “We need to get local and state agencies on board with federal agencies.”
“That’s not the case in Minnesota, and the results were tragic,” Johnson said.
President Donald Trump endorsed the deal in a post on Truth Social shortly after it was announced, saying he was hoping for a “much-needed bipartisan YES vote.”
