House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that he does not have plans to bring the House back early from recess despite a funding deadline just a week away.
The continuing resolution the House passed last week failed in the Senate, and both chambers left town for a week-long recess. But while the Senate plans to return next week to find a deal on government funding before the Sept. 30 deadline, Johnson said the “current” plan in the House is to not be in session on Sept. 29 or 30.
“We got our work done in the House,” he told reporters. “We got it done early, with regard to the funding. People have a lot to do back in their districts, and so we’re on the ready at any time, but the plan would be to come back when it’s necessary.”
Republicans and Democrats are currently at an impasse over funding: Democrats are pushing to attach health care demands to the CR and have argued Republicans did little to negotiate with them. The House-passed CR does not include those health care provisions and did not receive the at least seven Democratic votes needed to pass the Senate.
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President Donald Trump reportedly had plans to meet with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday to discuss government funding as the shutdown looms. But on Tuesday morning, Trump pulled the plug on a possible meeting.
“After reviewing the details of the unserious and ridiculous demands being made by the Minority Radical Left Democrats in return for their Votes to keep our thriving Country open, I have decided that no meeting with their Congressional Leaders could possibly be productive,” Trump posted to Truth Social.
Johnson said before the cancellation that if the president and Democratic leaders were to meet, he would “certainly” be there.
“Why would I not be there? It’s the Legislative Branch communicating with the Executive Branch,” Johnson said. “If there’s such a meeting with the leaders, then John Thune and I will certainly be a part of it.”
But he said he wasn’t sure a meeting would be “necessary,” adding that Democratic leaders have made “wild partisan demands that they’re trying to attach to a very simple, short-term, very clean CR. We just want to keep the government open so our appropriators can continue to do their work.”
Johnson continued the blame game over which party would be at fault if the chambers end up running past their deadline.
“The government would not shut down at the earliest until Oct. 1, so we’ll deal with it as appropriate. But if Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries decide they want to shut the government down, they’ve created the problem,” he said. “We’ll have to resolve it one way or the other, but what they need to do is vote to keep the government open and not make these wild demands in the midst of a serious situation for the whole country.”
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