On Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) said he was “confident” the government would reopen Tuesday.
Host Kristen Welker said, “As we sit here today, we are in the midst of a partial government shutdown. So I want to start right there. The latest reports are that you’ve spoken to Leader Hakeem Jeffries, that he has made it clear that you don’t have Democrat support to reopen the government. So let me put this bottom line question to you. Are you confident that the government will reopen on Monday with Republican votes? Do you have enough Republican support?”
Johnson said, “Well, let’s say I’m confident that we’ll do it at least by Tuesday. We have a logistical challenge of getting everyone in town. And because of the conversation I had with Hakeem Jeffries, I know that we’ve got to pass a rule and probably do this mostly on our own. I think that’s very unfortunate. Here’s what’s happened. You know, the House and Senate appropriators worked very well together, a bicameral, bipartisan, committee-led process, especially after the 43-day shutdown. The longest in U.S. history last fall. No one wanted to put that pain on the American people. Again. The Democrats forced it. We were insistent that we would not allow that to happen.”
He added, “But, you know, I tip my hat to everybody—appropriators of both parties who got this together after the Senate acted over the weekend. We will now have 11 of 12 separate appropriations bills approved by both chambers. That’s because they modified our package; they’ve sent it over a little differently, which means we’ve got to address the bills again. So they’re going to separate the Department of Homeland Security bill. Our intention is by Tuesday to fund all agencies, the federal government, except for that one. And then we’ll have two weeks of good faith negotiations to figure it out.”
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