Tina Nguyen at Puck:
So on Wednesday, when Johnson walked his conference through the contours of his deal with Schumer, his right flank revolted. “Drivel,” said Rep. Warren Davidson, who described the terms as “surrender.” Rep. Chip Roy has already suggested that Johnson, like McCarthy before him, could face a vote of no confidence. And on Wednesday afternoon, 13 hardline members, including Roy, began their assault on the budget, voting against a rule to consider debate on the bills in the budget—effectively grinding the process to a halt.Viewed through “D.C. math goggles,” as one MAGA-aligned aide described it to me, the Johnson-Schumer deal makes a certain amount of sense for most normie Republicans: Yes, Democrats get their bills funded, but Republicans can technically say they decreased the overall topline spending through $16 billion in offsets, and more importantly, it keeps the government open. But in Freedom Caucus math, this current proposed budget is $30 billion more than the bill initially proposed by Nancy Pelosi for FY23. “It’s actually bad, if not worse, than what we would have got in a different deal,” the aide said.
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If Johnson does not deliver, or appears to cave to Democrats, two potential options are on the table. The first is to instigate a two-week shutdown in protest, commencing on January 19, which was set into motion earlier today by the 13 holdouts. Failing that, Roy, Johnson’s loudest critic, has privately told allies that he reserves the right to call a motion to vacate, leading to yet another leadership election. “It’s war,” the Republican close to the conservative wing told me.
David Jordan and David Lerman at Roll Call:
A dozen Republicans joined House Democrats to vote down a rule for floor debate on unrelated legislation Wednesday out of anger over Speaker Mike Johnson’s budget accord with Democratic leaders and lack of movement on border restrictions.
The vote on the rule was 203-216, with 13 Republican “no” votes, though one, from Blake D. Moore of Utah, was simply a procedural move so the chamber could reconsider the rule at a later time.
Johnson, R-La., was seen in heated discussions during the vote with lawmakers including GOP Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, with lots of finger-pointing. Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., and Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., were seen defending Johnson. House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good, R-Va., and Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., were also part of the conversations.
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It was the second rule that’s gone down to defeat under Johnson’s tenure, after a rule in November that would have allowed debate on the fiscal 2024 Commerce-Justice-Science spending bill as well as an Iranian asset freeze bill.
The beginning of the end for McCarthy came last June, when Freedom Caucus members and other conservatives started voting against unrelated rules for floor debate in protest over the debt limit deal that set the initial fiscal 2024 spending numbers.
