By STEPHEN GROVES and KEVIN FREKING
WASHINGTON— With just a week left to avert a government shutdown, new House Speaker Mike Johnson is facing his first big test as he tries to win House Republican support for a short-term funding plan — a task that looks increasingly difficult amid stubborn divisions in the party over federal spending.
Federal agencies are making plans for a shutdown that would shutter government services and halt paychecks for millions of federal workers and military troops.
It’s a disruption that Johnson — just two weeks into his job running the House — has said he wants to avoid. Yet House lawmakers left Washington for the weekend without a plan in hand after several setbacks. Johnson is still sounding out support among Republicans about what to do and is expected to unveil funding legislation over the weekend, according to Republicans granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
The shrinking calendar gives Johnson, a Louisiana Republican who has vaulted from the lower ranks of Republican leadership to the speaker’s office, a narrow window to corral an unpredictable GOP conference.
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“We’re running up against the clock on Nov. 17, and we’re obviously aware of that,” Johnson said this week, referring to the date that government funding expires. “But we are going to get the job done.”
Hardline conservatives, usually loathe to support temporary spending measures of any sort, had indicated they would give Johnson some leeway to pass legislation, known as a continuing resolution, to give Congress more time to negotiate a long-term agreement. Congress passed a 47-day continuing resolution in October, but the fallout was severe. Kevin McCarthy was booted from the speakership days later, and the House was effectively paralyzed for most of the month while Republicans tried to elect a…
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