Ron Johnson spending blockade puts government shutdown in focus

WASHINGTON – Senate proceedings remained largely at a standstill as of Tuesday morning following a move by U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson to block the advancement of must-pass spending measures as the threat of a government shutdown looms over Capitol Hill.

Johnson’s maneuver to object to proceed to amendment votes on a so-called “minibus” package of spending bills led Senate leadership on Monday to move to suspend Senate rules in an effort to override the Oshkosh Republican’s blockade.

Wisconsin’s senior senator last Thursday took issue with the bundling of measures that would fund the Departments of Agriculture and Transportation with legislation to fund military construction and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The military construction and Veterans Affairs bill, as well as the other spending bills, should be considered one at a time, Johnson maintained.

Congress has until Sept. 30 to pass legislation to fund the government’s various agencies and avoid a shutdown.

“One member, mimicking the House Freedom Caucus, has derailed the Senate and prevented us from considering amendments, including Republican amendments,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor Monday, referring to Johnson. “It’s a reminder that in both chambers a small band of hard-right Republicans are dead set on grinding down the gears of government.”

“For these MAGA Republicans, it’s as if gridlock is a virtue and cooperation is a crime,” Schumer said. “I ask this small group of Republican senators: What happened to wanting to do appropriations in regular order?”

Still, Johnson on Monday stood by his decision to hold up proceedings on the spending package. He called for “fiscal sanity” and reiterated his desire for the Senate to take up the 12 spending bills, which all passed out of committees with bipartisan support, individually.

“This is not regular order. If this was regular order, they wouldn’t need my consent to break their own rules,” Johnson told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel when asked about his minibus objection.

“We need the House to start passing appropriations bills one at a time,” he said. “We need to bring them up and pass them here in the Senate one at a time. Actually, that process should’ve started last May, and the fact that it started here in September just shows how grossly dysfunctional this place is.”

Johnson’s single-handed roadblock has drawn the ire of Democrats and Republicans alike. Maine Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, pushed back on Johnson’s move last week noting it holds up Republican amendments to the legislation. She claimed it could lead to an omnibus — a massive 12-bill spending package.

Johnson on Monday told the Journal Sentinel Congress would “probably” end up with an omnibus package regardless of what he did with the minibus.

The back and forth is playing out under the threat of a government shutdown at the end of the month. Senate Democrats’ decision to move Monday to suspend Senate rules would end the delay caused by Johnson. Still, it is not a guaranteed solution because such a move needs 67 votes to pass the narrowly divided chamber. A vote is expected later this week.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is working to gather support from within his conference for a short-term stopgap measure, known as a continuing resolution, that would keep the government open past the Sept. 30 deadline.

Members of the House Freedom Caucus and the more moderate Main Street Caucus negotiated the one-month temporary funding bill over the weekend. The proposal would cut last year’s spending levels by 1% and result in nearly an 8% cut to non-defense spending while also leaving veterans affairs and disaster relief funding untouched.

The Republican stopgap measure, which has no future in a Senate controlled by Democrats, includes Republican border security and immigration proposals. A number of Republicans on Monday, however, came out against the legislation, leaving its future in the House this week uncertain.

“It reads like a hard-right screed,” Schumer, the Senate majority leader, said of the Republican proposal, noting it does not provide any additional aid to Ukraine. “This is not a serious proposal for avoiding a government shutdown and if passed would never have enough votes to make it through the Senate.”

That stopgap measure could be taken up in the House this week and is likely to get the support of the majority of the Republican conference, including those in Wisconsin.

“I’m in favor of it,” U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel outside the Capitol Monday evening. “It secures the border, which has been a complete disaster under the Biden administration. It does that while keeping the government open. It’s a great win.”

Asked about pushback over the measure within the Republican Party, Steil responded: “We have a narrow conference. Everything is hard.”

He added: “We’ve been underestimated. We overdeliver. It’s the same as the previous (debate) with the debate ceiling. We’ll get there.”

No Byline Policy

Editorial Guidelines

Corrections Policy

Source