Speaker Mike Johnson said he was talking with his ultraconservative colleagues about walking away from the agreement he struck with Democrats but had “made no commitments.”
- Share full article
Speaker Mike Johnson is facing a challenge to pass a spending deal he struck with Democrats.
Speaker Mike Johnson came under mounting pressure on Thursday from House G.O.P. hard-liners to renege on the spending deal he struck with Democrats over the weekend for avoiding a government shutdown, as ultraconservatives demanded he put forward a new plan with deeper cuts.
After meeting privately in his office in the Capitol with Republicans irate about the spending agreement, Mr. Johnson said he was discussing their demand to walk away from the bipartisan agreement but had “made no commitments” to do so.
But Republicans made it clear that they considered the deal the speaker negotiated a nonstarter, and threatened to wreak havoc in the House if he did not advance a different one. They are pressing for deep spending cuts, and many have said they cannot vote for any government funding measure that fails to include a severe crackdown on immigration.
“It’s a bad deal,” Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, said of the plan Mr. Johnson had agreed to with Democrats. “It’s a deal that I don’t support and other conservatives in the conference don’t support. So he’s going to have to go back to the drawing table.”
Mr. Johnson has told critics of his deal that he would consider dropping it, but only if they could come up with an alternative that could appeal to a majority in the House, where the party has just a two-seat edge. Such a plan would need to attract the backing of both the far right and more mainstream Republicans in competitive districts who have balked at the scope of the spending cuts and conservative policy dictates that their colleagues have demanded.
ImageA group gathered with Representative Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland, outside the Capitol in support of a spending deal.Credit…Kenny Holston/The New York Times
We are having trouble retrieving the article content.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Source: nytimes.com
