‘We had to get our government funded’: Speaker Johnson outlines plan to avert shutdown

(WASHINGTON) — With days until a partial government shutdown deadline, Speaker Mike Johnson said the newly negotiated bill text for the funding package will be out by Wednesday afternoon, triggering a timeline that means lawmakers would need to act fast to prevent a shutdown before a Friday deadline.

“We’ve been very consistent, very adamant that we had to get our government funded. We had to get the appropriations process done,” Johnson said Wednesday morning when asked at the GOP press conference about where things stand with supplemental funding, which includes aid for Ukraine and Israel.

Johnson said the Department of Homeland Security bill was “the most difficult to negotiate because the two parties have a wide chasm.” Funding for DHS was the final major sticking point in negotiations for the six spending bills that need to pass to avert a shutdown.

When the legislative text of bill comes out, lawmakers are up against the clock to prevent a shutdown. The House has a rule requiring 72 hours for members to review legislation before voting; the Senate also can take a few days to process House-passed bills. That means a vote may not happen until the end of the week or weekend — increasing the chances of shutdown — unless Johnson speeds up the process.

“I think the final product is something that we were able to achieve a lot of key provisions in, wins in, a move in the direction that we want — even with our tiny, historically small majority. There was some very tough negotiation, but that having come to an end now, the attention — as I’ve said all along — we’ll turn to the to the supplemental issues,” he said.

Johnson detailed some of those Republican wins during a closed-door meeting with the conference Wednesday morning, sources tell ABC News. Some of those wins in the package include border enforcement and defense spending — such as a 25% increase on border technology, a 6% cut to foreign aid and cuts to Defense Department climate programs.

Johnson declined to elaborate on a path forward for Ukraine funding in the House and dodged Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott’s question on a loan for Ukraine.

“I have not specifically talked about the mechanism of funding Ukraine. We’re talking about the whole supplemental in all these pieces, whether they would go individually or as a package, all those things are being debated and discussed internally. I think there is a big distinction in the minds of a lot of people between lethal aid for Ukraine and the humanitarian component,” Johnson said.

“Look, we understand the role that America plays in the world, we understand the importance of sending a strong signal to the world, that we stand by our allies, and we cannot allow terrorists and tyrants to march through the globe,” he said.

House Foreign Affairs Chairman Mike McCaul told ABC News that he’s working on a supplemental bill with appropriators, saying that “it can’t vary too much from the Senate, but it’s going to have our stamp on it.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday vowed that the Senate will move quickly to prevent the looming shutdown.

“We don’t yet know precisely when the House will act, but as soon as they send us the funding package, I will put it on the Senate floor. And from there, as we all know, it will take cooperation to get on the bill and consent and every senator to keep this process moving quickly,” Schumer said on the floor. “Even with the partisanship, it’s going to be a tight squeeze to get this funding package passed before the weekend deadline.”

Schumer encouraged his colleagues “to be flexible, to be prepared to act quickly, and to prioritize working together in good faith so we can finish the appropriations process.”

“Today, appropriators continue working on the legislative text and despite the tight deadline, they continue to make very good progress,” Schumer said. “They’re very diligent. They worked through the night, and we salute them on both sides of the aisles.”

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