Already declaring himself blame-free by asserting, “I wasn’t the architect of the mess we are in,” neophyte Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said during a call with the Republican conference in which he laid out a two-step plan to fund the government before a potential government shutdown at the end of the month, CNN reports.
Instead of simply passing one bill, Johnson will use a more, needlessly complicated two-bill process in which the first bill will fund agencies for things like military construction, Veterans Affairs, transportation and housing and the Energy Department (which oversees the national supply of nuclear material) through mid-January and the separate bill funding the rest of government through the end of January. Why the staggered deadline is anyone’s guess, but it will make future funding more contentious in the future.
Johnson did not include significant funding cuts demanded by the far-right fiscal conservatives of his Party. Nor does the plan include funding for either Israel or Ukraine. The strategy of breaking up funding and appropriations bills will only add to the chaos cited by ratings companies to justify lowering the long-term credit outlook of the United States.