Speaker Mike Johnson plans to roll the dice Tuesday on a GOP bill to stop the federal government from shutting down this weekend.
The top House leader is putting his party’s short-term funding measure to a vote on the floor not knowing if he has the votes to pass it and facing opposition from within his own ranks.
“I feel good. I think we’ll have the votes,” he told reporters Monday evening, saying he has talked to President Donald Trump but hasn’t asked him to assist in whipping efforts.
“I hope that he doesn’t have to do that,” Johnson said. “We should be able to do our business, but look he has always been very helpful, willing to help as needed.”
Still, Vice President JD Vance is slated to attend the House Republican weekly conference meeting ahead of the vote early Tuesday morning, which could help change some minds.
At least a handful of Republicans in the very narrowly divided chamber have declared themselves undecided on whether to back the legislation, which includes funding to help carry out Trump’s mass deportations.
Rep. Thomas Massie, the fiscal conservative firebrand from Kentucky, flat out says he’s a hard no on the spending bill.
One GOP lawmaker predicted others will be joining Massie. “It looks like five no [votes],” the lawmaker told the Daily Beast.
But GOP leaders say they’re optimistic they’ll hold the line on defections.
“I think we’re going to get this [bill] done,” one senior GOP lawmaker told the Daily Beast. “No one wants to stop DJT’s agenda.”
Trump has called on Republicans to rally around the bill, posting on Truth Social: “All Republicans should vote (Please!) YES next week. NO DISSENT.”
However, Johnson is threading a needle in rallying support with his razor-thin majority, and Republicans are not expected to receive much backing from Democrats.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has railed against the legislation, alleging it “dramatically cuts health care, nutritional assistance for children and families, and veterans’ benefits.”
“It is not something we could ever support. House Democrats will not be complicit in the Republican effort to hurt the American people,” Jeffries told reporters on Monday evening.
Johnson said he hasn’t talked to Jeffries in an attempt to attract bipartisan support, but called on members across the aisle to back the measure.
“We have not [spoken] since the text dropped, but I look forward to talking with them about it,” he said. “I can’t imagine that they would just tell everyone to vote against funding the government, when they are all on video 1,000 times saying and that would be a great calamity for the country.”
Republicans deny that the bill will negatively impact key programs.
It remains unclear whether some moderate Democrats will break party lines to support the House funding bill. (Ten Democrats broke ranks to join Republicans in censuring their fellow Democratic colleague Al Green last week.)
Passing the legislation through the Senate could be an even heavier lift than in the House, with a sizable number of Senate Democrats blasting the bill. Plus, the legislation would require 60 votes to pass the Senate, with the support of at least seven Democrats to break a filibuster.
“This is a shutdown bill that’s bad for the economy—let Trump shut down whatever he wants, hurting everyday folks to use money for tax breaks for the uber-rich. Hell no!” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said on social media.
Some centrist Democrats, however, have voiced concerns about taking political heat for a government shutdown. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) recently cautioned on X: “Never, never, never vote for a shutdown—ever.”
And Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) told Punchbowl News she’s not satisfied with the bill. But she didn’t say whether she would vote against it.
