House Republicans have yet to coalesce around their own plan to avert a government shutdown with just 10 days until the deadline, raising the stakes for a new speaker who will have to contend with the internal dynamics of his conference and a Democratically-controlled Senate and White House.
In an hour-long conference meeting Tuesday morning, Speaker Mike Johnson laid out a series of options for his members including a short-term spending bill through January 19, another laddered approach that would fund some government agencies until one date and the option of waiting to see what the Senate sends them. During the meeting, however, members also introduced their own ideas and laid out their own preferences as the speaker listened, sources said.
They aren’t trying to avert a shutdown, they’re trying to get the most concessions possible in exchange for averting it. They are the ones causing the shutdown, everyone else is actually trying to keep the government running.