Johnson to side-step GOP rebels on government funding, seek Dem support to avoid shutdown

House GOP leaders are poised to skirt Republican opposition to their federal funding plan as they race the clock against a partial government shutdown.

"We’ve got a lot of people that honestly think a government shutdown is a good idea, or at least don’t want to take responsibility for avoiding one," House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said Tuesday. "It’s not good for the American people, it doesn’t work politically…and you’re sent up here to be responsible."

Normally, a bill would have to advance through the House Rules Committee and then receive a House-wide procedural vote, known as a "rule vote," before lawmakers decide on the measure itself.

But rule votes traditionally fall along party lines, regardless of who supports the bill itself.

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Rep. Ralph Norman, a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus who sits on the Rules Committee, told Fox News Digital on Monday night that he would support the rule advancing through the panel but would reject it on the House floor.

With opposition bubbling up and just a three-seat majority, House GOP leaders likely did not have the votes to pass the rule.

Instead, multiple people told Fox News Digital they expect Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to put the measure up for a vote under suspension of the rules – meaning it forgoes the House-wide rule vote in exchange for raising the threshold for passage from a simple majority to two-thirds of the chamber.

The bill is a short-term extension of this year’s government funding, known as a continuing resolution (CR), through Dec. 20. The goal is to give Congress more time to negotiate spending priorities for fiscal year 2025, which begins Oct. 1.

A significant number of Republicans are opposed to a CR on principle, arguing it’s an unnecessary extension of government bloat. 

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But a government shutdown just weeks before Election Day could come at a heavy political cost for Republicans – something Johnson pointed out to GOP lawmakers at a closed-door meeting on Tuesday morning, three people told Fox News Digital.

However, he also promised lawmakers they would not be forced to vote on an end-of-year "omnibus" spending bill, which wraps all 12 annual appropriations bills into a massive vehicle – something nearly all Republicans oppose.

Johnson was always expected to need Democratic votes to pass his December CR. Dozens of Republicans have voted against such measures in the past. 

Putting the bill up under suspension of the rules, however, appears to be an indirect acknowledgment that Democrats will need to carry much of the weight for it to pass.

"Having to rely on liberal Democrats to pass anything is very disappointing," Norman said after Tuesday morning’s meeting.

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Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital, "A CR, an appropriations bill, under suspension? That’s not the way to run a railroad."

Both said they expected Congress to be forced into an omnibus bill, jammed up against the holiday recess.

Johnson did get some backup from House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., however.

"I take the speaker at his word that he will not do that," Harris said when asked about an end-of-year omnibus.

Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told reporters that the CR would get a vote on Wednesday, suggesting suspension of the rules was their likely option.

Last week, a more conservative CR – one that would’ve kicked the funding fight into March and attached a measure cracking down on noncitizens voting in U.S. elections – was defeated by 14 Republicans and all but three Democrats.

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., one of the 14 rebels who voted against that plan, gave Johnson grace for the position he was in.

"Speaker Johnson's on the spot," Burchett told reporters. "He has to do what he has to do."