Congress averted shutdown, but storms lie ahead as House speaker faces criticism

Jeff Barker, Baltimore Sun on Dec 29, 2024

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Steve Bannon held his microphone out to the crowd.

“Should (Mike) Johnson be speaker of the House?” he asked.

“Nooo,” came the reply, as Bannon, the longtime ally of Republican President-elect Donald Trump, spoke at a Dec. 19 “AmericaFest” rally of Turning Point USA, a right-wing advocacy organization.

Bannon, who said at the event that Johnson “has got to go,” spoke in Phoenix as the U.S. House debated an end-of-session spending package. Congress ultimately passed a Johnson-endorsed, stopgap funding bill signed by Democratic President Joe Biden on Dec. 21 to avert a government shutdown ahead of the holidays. But Bannon’s remarks foretold likely challenges to Johnson.

As the opening of the new Congress approaches on Friday, Johnson’s leadership is being questioned by, among others, Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, who heads the House Freedom Caucus, and Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry, who previously led the hard-line conservative group. Neither will commit to backing the Louisiana Republican. The speaker will help determine whether Trump can succeed on an agenda that includes policy shifts on taxes, voting and border policy.

Underlying the GOP’s turmoil is how closely it should work with Democrats, if at all, particularly on spending issues.

“The political class is infected with a malignant cancer. That cancer is bipartisanship, right?” Bannon told the crowd.

Johnson, he said, “doesn’t have what we call the right stuff, right? That combination of guts and moxie and savvy and toughness.”

Bannon, who previously served four months in prison for defying a congressional subpoena, is awaiting trial in a case alleging he was part of a scheme to dupe donors who contributed to help build a wall on the Mexican border.

Other Republicans have also questioned Johnson’s leadership.

Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican, recently floated a proposal to elect billionaire Elon Musk, a Trump adviser and ally, as speaker. The speaker is not required to be an elected House member.

The election will occur after the new Congress assumes office on Jan. 3.

“Nothing would disrupt the swamp more than electing Elon Musk,” Paul posted on X. “Think about it … nothing’s impossible. (not to mention the joy at seeing the collective establishment, aka ‘uniparty,’ lose their ever-lovin’ minds).”

As Congress raced to avoid a shutdown before Christmas, Musk was instrumental in sinking an earlier spending proposal by House Republicans — Democrats also backed it — to head off a government shutdown. The package contained about $100 billion in disaster aid, including a federal commitment long sought by Maryland lawmakers to pay the full cost of replacing the Francis Scott Key Bridge following its March collapse.

Musk, citing a pay increase for Congress among other objections, attacked the bill on X, his social media platform, calling it “dead.”

Johnson, who has supported Trump, then pitched the alternative that was ultimately approved. He needed a deal acceptable not only to most Republicans but also to Democrats, whose votes were required because the GOP majority was so slim.

The final package included the Key Bridge funding commitment but neither the pay raise nor a Trump proposal to suspend the debt ceiling — the amount the government can borrow.

Republicans won a “trifecta” — control of the White House, House and Senate — in the November elections, and Trump has claimed a broad mandate for such proposals as mass deportation and reducing the civil service workforce.

But his party has split among hard-line spending watchdogs and those more prone to work with Democrats on shared priorities.

Among those repeatedly protesting spending levels are Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds and Harris, the only Republican in Maryland’s congressional delegation; his district includes Harford County, the Eastern Shore and a piece of Baltimore County. Harris chairs the Freedom Caucus, a group that has focused on fiscal conservatism since its inception.

Donalds recently posted on X: “It’s time to clean house. It’s time to slash spending & cut debt.”

Harris also expressed concerns during the recent negotiations, saying in a written statement that he believed the Key Bridge replacement should be funded, “but with a $2 trillion-dollar annual deficit left from the Biden administration, we should look to offset any cost with savings elsewhere.” Harris did not respond to correspondence seeking comment on Friday.

The party was similarly divided in 2023 when its far-right voting bloc expressed dissatisfaction with former Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California, saying he had not forcefully resisted the Democratic agenda. Johnson, who replaced McCarthy, said at the time that he would emphasize bringing up individual spending bills instead of putting funding measures into a large package as executive branch spending authority is about to run out.

But Congress needed such stopgap bills in September and again on Dec. 21 to fund the government in three-month increments.

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