{"id":9912,"date":"2026-07-18T21:17:05","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T16:17:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=9912"},"modified":"2026-07-18T21:17:05","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T16:17:05","slug":"mike-johnsons-government-funding-gambit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=9912","title":{"rendered":"Mike Johnson&#039;s government funding gambit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/nVKzemcwMIkIxD1Qj1hlzjkx2kA=\/0x50:4000x2300\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/16\/1784232538996.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>House Speaker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/10\/mike-johnson-house-failed-rule-votes\" target=\"_blank\">Mike Johnson<\/a> (R-La.) wants to hold a conspicuously early vote on a short-term funding bill next week \u2014 more than two months before the government runs out of money.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters:<\/strong> Johnson may be setting himself up to win in September by losing in July.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<ul>\n<li>A failed vote on a short-term spending stopgap could potentially strengthen the GOP leader&#8217;s hand in another difficult challenge: securing $67 billion for the Pentagon to replenish its munitions through the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/14\/mike-johnson-house-republicans-reconciliation\" target=\"_blank\">reconciliation process<\/a>, according to conservative lawmakers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>An early defeat <\/strong>on a continuing resolution would give Johnson a pretext to shoehorn a spending stopgap bill into a September reconciliation package.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Call it Reconciliation 3.0 <em>Plus<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The Dems know, &#8216;OK, if we don&#8217;t do the CR, we&#8217;ll do it in a [reconciliation] bill,&#8221; Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) told Axios.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What we&#8217;re watching:<\/strong> Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) are on starkly different wavelengths when it comes to a third reconciliation package.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;You&#8217;ve got to think long and hard about this. It&#8217;s a much easier proposition in the House,&#8221; Thune said Thursday.<\/li>\n<li>But pairing a continuing resolution with reconciliation could have two advantages. First, it makes it harder for House Republicans to oppose the package.<\/li>\n<li>It would also present the Senate with a take-it-or-leave-it choice: accept the House reconciliation bill or share the blame for a government shutdown.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Zoom out:<\/strong> Republicans <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/10\/government-shutdown-congress-republicans-midterm-elections\" target=\"_blank\">are increasingly worried<\/a> about spending the final month of the midterm campaign defending a government shutdown.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>House Republicans have little confidence Democrats will provide the votes needed to pass a funding extension.<\/li>\n<li>The planned July vote is designed to put both Democrats and the Senate on notice that Republicans don&#8217;t believe they can count on bipartisan support for a continuing resolution.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The other side:<\/strong> GOP senators are deeply skeptical about pivoting to a CR in July.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They want to give the regular appropriations process time to work. And they are aware that public talk of a stopgap measure risks undercutting bipartisan negotiations over full-year spending bills.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Driving the news:<\/strong> Johnson said Thursday he plans to bring a clean continuing resolution to the House floor next week before lawmakers leave for the August recess. (The Senate is scheduled to remain in session for two additional weeks.)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>But there&#8217;s little reason to believe it will pass.<\/li>\n<li>House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) didn&#8217;t rule out Democratic support for a clean CR but warned Republicans against taking a &#8220;my-way-or-the-highway approach.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Meanwhile, some conservatives are threatening to oppose any must-pass spending bill that doesn&#8217;t include the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/06\/30\/house-republicansstuck-save-america-act\" target=\"_blank\">SAVE America Act<\/a>. Johnson told reporters he &#8220;hasn&#8217;t decided&#8221; whether to attach the measure.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Between the lines: <\/strong>Conservatives have been pushing leaders to use reconciliation to fund parts of the government, and a failed CR vote could give Johnson political cover with frustrated appropriators.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>But the strategy has its detractors.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;I&#8217;ve heard it talked about, and I think it&#8217;s a bad idea,&#8221; Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.), an Appropriations Committee member, told Axios last month about using reconciliation for appropriations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Yes, but:<\/strong> That entire strategy rests on Republicans actually passing a third reconciliation bill \u2014 a prospect about which many lawmakers remain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/15\/house-republicans-budget-save-act-iran-war-jd-vance\" target=\"_blank\">skeptical<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The bottom line:<\/strong> Even if the continuing resolution fails, forcing the vote allows Johnson to argue that Republicans exhausted the normal appropriations process before turning to reconciliation.<\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wants to hold a conspicuously early vote on a short-term funding bill next week \u2014 more than two months before the government runs out of money. Why it matters: Johnson may be setting himself up to win in September by losing in July. A failed vote on a short-term spending&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/nVKzemcwMIkIxD1Qj1hlzjkx2kA=\/0x50:4000x2300\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/16\/1784232538996.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}