The U.S. Congress overwhelmingly passed a $1.2 trillion budget bill on March 23, keeping the government funded through a fiscal year that began six months ago and sending it to President Joe Biden to sign into law and avert a partial shutdown. The vote on passage was 74-24.

Key federal agencies including the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, State and Treasury, which houses the Internal Revenue Service, will remain funded through Sept. 30 after the bill was passed in the Democratic-majority Senate.

But the measure did not include funding for mostly military aid to Ukraine, Taiwan or Israel, which are included in a different Senate-passed bill that the Republican-led House of Representatives has ignored.

Senate leaders spent hours on March 23 negotiating numerous amendments to the budget bill that ultimately were defeated. The delay pushed passage beyond a Friday midnight deadline.

But the White House Office of Management and Budget issued a statement saying agencies would not be ordered to shut, expressing confidence that the Senate would promptly pass the bill, which it did.

Partisan divisions on display, again

While Congress got the job done, deep partisan divides were on display again, as well as bitter disagreement within the House’s narrow and fractious Republican majority. Conservative firebrand Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene threatened to force a vote to remove Speaker Mike Johnson, a fellow Republican, for allowing the measure to pass.

The 1,012-page bill provides $886 billion in funding for the Defence Department, including a raise for U.S. troops. Mr. Biden, a Democrat, has indicated he will sign it.

Mr. Johnson, as he has done more than 60 times since succeeding his ousted predecessor Kevin McCarthy in October, relied on a parliamentary manoeuvre to bypass hardliners within his own party on March 22, allowing the measure to pass by a 286-134 vote that had substantially more Democratic support than Republican.

For most of the past six months, the government was funded with four short-term stopgap measures, a sign of the repeated brinkmanship that rating agencies have warned could hurt the creditworthiness of a federal government that has nearly $34.6 trillion in debt.

Also read: Unnecessary brinkmanship: On the U.S.’s fiscal quagmire

“This legislation is truly a national security bill — 70% of the funding in this package is for our national defence, including investments that strengthen our military readiness and industrial base, provide pay and benefit increases for our brave servicemembers and support our closest allies,” said Republican Senator Susan Collins, one of the main negotiators.

Opponents cast the bill as too expensive. “It’s reckless. It leads to inflation. It’s a direct vote to steal your paycheck,” said Senator Rand Paul, part of a band of Republicans who generally oppose most spending bills.

The last partial federal government shutdown occurred during Donald Trump’s presidency, from Dec. 22, 2018 until Jan. 25, 2019. The record-long interruption in government services came as the Republican insisted on money to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico and was unable to broker a deal with Democrats.

Trouble for Speaker Johnson?

The new budget bill passed the House with 185 Democratic and 101 Republican votes, which led Ms. Greene, a hardline conservative, to introduce her measure to oust Mr. Johnson.

Also read: Mike Johnson | The man with the gavel

That move had echoes of October when a small band of hardliners engineered a vote that removed Mr. McCarthy for relying on Democrats to pass a stopgap measure to avert another partial government shutdown.

They had been angry at Md. McCarthy since June, when he agreed with Mr. Biden on the outlines of the fiscal 2024 spending that were passed on March 22.

Mr. McCarthy’s ouster brought the House to a halt for three weeks as Republicans struggled to agree on a new leader, an experience many in the party said they did not want to repeat as the November election draws nearer.

Ms. Greene said she would not push for an immediate vote on her move to force Mr. Johnson out. “I filed a motion to vacate today. But it’s more of a warning than a pink slip,” the Georgia Republican told reporters.

Indeed, some Democrats said that they would vote to keep Mr. Johnson, if he were to call a vote on a $95 billion security assistance package already approved by the Senate for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

That measure is unlikely to come up anytime soon, as lawmakers will now leave Washington for a two-week break.

Pockets of Republican opposition to more funding for Ukraine have led to fears that Russia could seriously erode Kyiv’s ability to continue defending itself.

Life is unlikely to become easier for Mr. Johnson anytime soon, with the looming departure of two members of his caucus – Ken Buck and Mike Gallagher – set to reduce his majority to a mere 217-213 in a month’s time. At that point, he could afford to lose only one vote from his party on any measure that Democrats unite to oppose.

A view of the U.S. Capitol dome, as Congress nears the deadline to extend funding or face a partial shutdown of the federal government. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives and Democratic-majority Senate on March 22 will scramble to beat a midnight government shutdown deadline by passing a $1.2 trillion bill keeping the government funded through September.

If they succeed, it will end a more-than-six-month battle over the scope of Washington’s spending for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. If they fail, federal agencies will begin a partial shutdown, furloughing thousands of workers nationwide and abroad.

Also read: All you need to know about US shutdown

“This bill funds our highest national security priorities,” Republican House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Kay Granger said in a statement on Thursday, praising the bipartisan deal.

Granger mainly was referring to the Defense Department’s $886 billion in funding included in the 1,012-page bill that also covers agencies ranging from the Department of Homeland Security, Internal Revenue Service and Justice Department to Treasury and State departments.

It will add to the fast-growing national debt that now totals nearly $34.6 trillion.

Not all Republicans were as enthusiastic over the bill. “It spends $5.5 million per word, fully funds and continues the Biden border crisis, and is loaded with radioactive ‘woke’ earmarks,” the hardline House Freedom Caucus said.

Earmarks are special spending requests sought by individual members of Congress, often public works projects for their home states or districts.

Still to be seen is whether conservative Republicans in the Senate delay passage of the bill by demanding debate on a series of amendments.

Meanwhile, a separate, controversial money matter is boiling in Congress where its leaders, except for House Speaker Mike Johnson, urgently are calling for final passage of a $95 billion security assistance package approved by the Senate for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

Some Republicans are balking at continuing to back Ukraine in its war against the invading Russian military.

While conservatives succeeded in getting Congress and Democratic President Joe Biden to agree to some fiscal 2024 spending cuts, they hoped for far deeper ones. Their disgruntlement led to the historic October removal of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The Republicans’ subsequent political infighting shut down the House for three weeks as Republicans fought over a replacement.

BACK TO THE BRINK

Since then, with the November elections looming, most Republicans have been loathe to trigger a government shutdown over spending, although Washington was brought to the brink four times since late September.

The last shutdown occurred during Donald Trump’s presidency, from Dec. 22, 2018 until Jan. 25, 2019. The record-long interruption in government services came as Trump insisted on money to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico and was unable to broker a deal with Democrats.

It ended when some air traffic controllers in major airport hubs, tired of working without pay, threatened to stay at home.

Rating agencies have warned that the repeated brinkmanship could take a toll on the U.S. government’s creditworthiness.

A shutdown beginning on Saturday would mean most U.S. Border Patrol and immigration agents would continue to work. But local governments might not receive new aid to shelter migrants.

U.S. soldiers and all federal workers would not get paid until new funding is enacted and national parks would be shuttered. Same situation for the two U.S. astronauts aboard the International Space Station 254 miles (409 km) above Earth.

Meanwhile, the Internal Revenue Service would continue processing tax returns that are due on April 15. It would advise taxpayers of any potential delays in refunds. At the State Department, security at embassies and other foreign offices would remain in force and passports and visas would be issued as long as there were sufficient fees to support such activities. Many other operations would cease. (Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Scott Malone and David Gregorio)

Illustration for The Hindu
| Photo Credit: Satheesh Vellinezhi

This week, the U.S. House of Representatives finally succeeded in electing a Speaker, after more than three weeks of a leadership crisis in the chamber, the deleterious outcome of which was the stalling of important bills relating to federal government finances and congressional funding and support for Israel and Ukraine. In the aftermath of the ouster of Kevin McCarthy from the top role in the chamber on October 3, the candidate who emerged victorious after multiple rounds of closed-door confabulations and voting is Mike Johnson, Representative of Louisiana.

To win the coveted post, which makes him second in line for the U.S. presidency, Mr. Johnson had to persuade lawmakers that his relative lack of experience at the highest echelons of the House governance apparatus would not stand in the way of his proficiently wielding the Speaker’s gavel. Other than the Republican Study Committee, Mr. Johnson has neither occupied the top role in any high-profile House committee, nor held any other post, functional or ceremonial, that would have automatically led to name recognition as a political heavyweight in the tortuous contest to be the Speaker.

Also Read | Republicans nominate Mike Johnson for House speaker after Emmer’s withdrawal, desperate to end chaos

How, then, did Mr. Johnson reach this exalted point in his political career? Quite simply, it appears that the same political force that rendered the search for Speaker an embattled process equally propelled a candidate such as Mr. Johnson to the top: the long shadow of the 45th President of the U.S., Donald Trump, over the Lower House of Congress.

Looking back at the ouster of Mr. McCarthy and the failure of Tom Emmer of Minnesota, Jim Jordan of Ohio, and Steve Scalise of Louisiana to secure the gavel by cornering the minimum of 217 votes, despite being nominated to the role, it was the degree to which each of them enjoyed the support of the pro-Trumpers in the House that ultimately made the difference.

This begs the question of how far Mr. Johnson has gone to support the controversial views of Mr. Trump on a range of hot-button issues, and how he emerged as a compromise candidate to satisfy the demands of both the Trump-supporting camp and their opponents within the House Republican caucus.

Originally elected to Congress in 2016, Mr. Johnson represented an avowedly conservative corner of northern and western Louisiana. His tenure on Capitol Hill saw him rise gradually through the ranks of House Republican system, when he joined the Judiciary and Armed Services Committees and the recently-established select committee on ‘Weaponisation of the Federal Government’.

Hard right conservative

An examination of his voting record during this time, along with statements that he has made on the record, suggest that the relatively mild-mannered Representative was in reality a hard right conservative on social issues. For example, he has said that he does not believe that humanity has caused the climate crisis, that he is against abortion, and is unapologetic in his opposition to LGBTQ+ rights. On foreign policy, he has voted against continuing U.S. aid to Ukraine.

However, Mr. Johnson’s political leanings were most lucidly on display in recent years when he took a lead in the legal challenges contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, essentially arguing that ballot voting — necessitated by COVID-19-related lockdowns and movement restrictions — was a fraud by Democrats that allegedly denied Mr. Trump a fair run at winning the presidency. In that context Mr. Johnson was again on the record urging Mr. Trump to “keep fighting” and “exhaust every available legal remedy”.

Now that Mr. Johnson has gained the Speaker’s gavel, he has the power to introduce an ever-wider range of bills that favour the political agenda of Mr. Trump, who at this time looks likely to be the Republican nominee in the 2024 presidential election.

By setting the scene legislatively for Mr. Trump and thus paving the way for the latter’s second presidential campaign, Mr. Johnson will now put Democrats’ backs against the wall and force their hand in opposition to every contentious bill in the House.

The inevitable collapse of bipartisanship in the Lower Chamber that this outcome presages could well impact the very quality of governance by the federal government, not to mention deepen the bitter polarisation of the electorate on issues such as reproductive rights, immigration, the role of the government in steering the economy, and racism.

Washington:

 Republican Congressman from Louisiana Mike Johnson has been elected as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, bringing an end to three weeks of uncertainty in US politics.

The position of Speaker of the House of Representatives is one of the most powerful political chairs in the country and is third in the line of succession after the US President.

Johnson on Wednesday was elected by 220 to 209 votes in a bitterly divided Congress, three weeks after his predecessor Kevin McCarthy was unceremoniously voted out of the seat for the first time in US history. In the 435-member House, the Republicans hold a slender majority with 221 seats against 212 of the Democrats.

The 56th Speaker of the House of Representatives, Johnson, 51, a lawyer by profession, is a four-term Congressman from the Fourth Congressional District of Louisiana.

In his maiden address to the Congress, Speaker Johnson said his first legislative agenda would be to bring a resolution in support of Israel, a country that was hit by a terrorist attack by Hamas early this month.

“We are going to show not only Israel but the entire world that the barbarism of Hamas that we have seen play out on our television screens is wretched and wrong,” he said.

“We want our allies around the world to know that this body of lawmakers is reporting again to our duty stations. Let the enemies of freedom around the world hear us loud and clear: The people’s house is back in business,” Johnson said.

However, his main challenge at hand would be to avoid a government shutdown by passing the spending bill and approving the USD100 billion request by President Joe Biden to fund the war in Israel and Ukraine.

Johnson, whose candidature was supported by former president Donald Trump, said that he would propose a short-term measure to fund the government through January 15 or April 15.

“So, at this time yesterday, nobody was thinking of Mike and then we put out the word and now he’s speaker of the House, so I wanted to thank all of the supporters that I have and I want to thank all of the supporters Mike has, and again he will be a great speaker,” Trump said after the election of the new speaker.

In his speech, Johnson indicated that he is getting down to business immediately. “The American people’s business is too urgent at this moment,” he said.

“We’re in the majority right now. We’ve gone through a little bit of suffering. We’ve gone through a little bit of character building. And, you know what it’s produced? More strength, more perseverance, and a lot of hope. And that’s what we are about to deliver to the American people,” Johnson said, adding that he would have an aggressive schedule in the days and weeks ahead. US President Joe Biden said he is looking forward to working with the Speaker Johnson.

According to the White House, this afternoon, Biden called Johnson to congratulate him on his election, and expressed that he looks forward to working together to find common ground on behalf of the American people “While House Republicans spent the last 22 days determining who would lead their conference, I have worked on those pressing issues, proposing a historic supplemental funding package that advances our bipartisan national security interests in Israel and Ukraine, secures our border, and invests in the American people. These priorities have been endorsed by leaders in both parties,” Biden said in a statement.

“We need to move swiftly to address our national security needs and to avoid a shutdown in 22 days. Even though we have real disagreements about important issues, there should be mutual effort to find common ground wherever we can,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Republicans eagerly elected Rep. Mike Johnson as House Speaker on October 25, elevating a deeply conservative but lesser-known leader to the seat of U.S. power and ending for now the political chaos in their majority.

Mr. Johnson, 51, of Louisiana, swept through on the first ballot with support from all Republicans anxious to put the past weeks of tumult behind and get on with the business of governing. He was quickly sworn into office.

“We are ready to get to work again,” he said after taking the gavel.

To the American people watching he said, “Our mission here is to serve you well and to restore the people’s faith in this House.”

A lower-ranked member of the House GOP leadership team, Mr. Johnson emerged as the fourth Republican nominee in what had become an almost absurd cycle of political infighting since Kevin McCarthy’s ouster as GOP factions jockeyed for power. While not the party’s top choice for the gavel, the deeply religious and even-keeled Mr. Johnson has few foes and an important GOP backer: Donald Trump.

“I think he’s gonna be a fantastic Speaker,” Mr. Trump said on October 25 at the New York courthouse where the former President, who is now the Republican front-runner for President in 2024, is on trial over a lawsuit alleging business fraud.

Three weeks on without a House Speaker, the Republicans have been wasting their majority status — a maddening embarrassment to some, democracy in action to others, but not at all how the House is expected to function.

Far-right members had refused to accept a more traditional Speaker, and moderate conservatives didn’t want a hard-liner. While Mr. Johnson had no opponents during a private party roll call late on October 24, some two dozen Republicans did not vote, more than enough to sink his nomination.

But when GOP Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik rose to introduce Mr. Johnson’s name on October 25 as their nominee, Republicans jumped to their feet for a standing ovation.

“House Republicans and Speaker Mike Johnson will never give up,” she said.

Democrats again nominated their leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, criticising Mr. Johnson as an architect of Mr. Trump’s legal effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

With Republicans controlling the House only 221-212 over Democrats, Mr. Johnson could afford just a few detractors to win the gavel. He won 220-209, with a few absences.

Mr. Jeffries said House Democrats will work with Republicans whenever possible for the “good of the country.”

Overnight the endorsements for Mr. Johnson started pouring in, including from failed speaker hopefuls. Rep. Jim Jordan, the hard-charging Judiciary Committee chairman, gave his support, as did Majority Leader Steve Scalise, the fellow Louisiana congressman, who stood behind Mr. Johnson after he won the nomination.

“Mike! Mike! Mike!” lawmakers chanted at a press conference after the late-night internal vote, surrounding Mr. Johnson and posing for selfies in a show of support.

Anxious and exhausted, Republican lawmakers are desperately trying to move on.

Mr. Johnson’s rise comes after a tumultuous month, capped by a head-spinning on October 24 that within a span of a few hours saw one candidate, Rep. Tom Emmer, the GOP Whip, nominated and then quickly withdraw when it became clear he would be the third candidate unable to secure enough support from GOP colleagues after Mr. Trump bashed his nomination.

“He wasn’t MAGA,” said Mr. Trump, referring to his Make America Great Again campaign slogan.

Attention quickly turned to Mr. Johnson. A lawyer specialising in constitutional issues, Mr. Johnson had rallied Republicans around Mr. Trump’s legal effort to overturn the 2020 election results.

Explained | Gaining the gavel: the role of the U.S. House Speaker  

Elevating Mr. Johnson to speaker gives Louisianians two high-ranking GOP leaders, putting him above Scalise, who was rejected by hard-liners in his own bid as Speaker.

Mr. Johnson is affable and well liked, with a fiery belief system, and colleagues swiftly started giving him their support.

“Democracy is messy sometimes, but it is our system,” Mr. Johnson said after winning the nomination. “We’re going to restore your trust in what we do here.”

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who led a small band of hard-liners to engineer Mr. McCarthy’s ouster at the start of the month, posted on social media that “Mike Johnson won’t be the Speaker the Swamp wants but, he is the Speaker America needs.”

Republicans have been flailing all month, unable to conduct routine business as they fight amongst themselves with daunting challenges ahead.

The federal government risks a shutdown in a matter of weeks if Congress fails to pass funding legislation by a Nov. 17 deadline to keep services and offices running. More immediately, President Biden has asked Congress to provide $105 billion in aid — to help Israel and Ukraine amid their wars and to shore up the U.S. border with Mexico. Federal aviation and farming programs face expiration without action.

Many hard-liners have been resisting a leader who voted for the budget deal that Mr. McCarthy struck with Mr. Biden earlier this year, which set federal spending levels that far-right Republicans don’t agree with and now want to undo. They are pursuing steeper cuts to federal programs and services with next month’s funding deadline.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said she wanted assurances the candidates would pursue impeachment inquiries into Biden and other top Cabinet officials.

During the turmoil, the House was led by a Speaker pro tempore, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., the bow tie-wearing chairman of the Financial Services Committee. His main job was to elect a more permanent Speaker.

Some Republicans — and Democrats — wanted to give Mr. McHenry more power to get on with the routine business of governing. But Mr. McHenry, the first person to be in the position that was created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks as an emergency measure, declined to back those overtures. He, too, received a standing ovation.

New Delhi:

Republican Jim Jordan’s quest to become speaker of the US House of Representatives ended on Friday. Mr Jordan failed to secure the number of votes required to take over the position. Now, as the race begins again, all eyes are on the frontrunners — Tom Emmer,  Kevin Hern, Mike Johnson, and Jack Bergman.

1. Tom Emmer

Congressman Tom Emmer is one of the strongest contenders in the race. He announced his GOP’s nomination for speaker on Friday.

Mr Emmer, who has former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s support, took to his official X (earlier known as Twitter) account and wrote, “The American people elected us to deliver on a conservative agenda that secures our border, stops reckless spending, and holds Joe Biden accountable. We cannot afford to fail them. I’m running for Speaker of the House to bring our conference together and get back to work.”

The American people elected us to deliver on a conservative agenda that secures our border, stops reckless spending, and holds Joe Biden accountable.

We cannot afford to fail them.

I’m running for Speaker of the House to bring our conference together and get back to work. pic.twitter.com/kVFmlQ70PS

— Tom Emmer (@GOPMajorityWhip) October 21, 2023

2. Kevin Hern

Kevin Hern is the chairman of the Republican Study Committee. Not many would know, but Mr Hern used to own a McDonald’s franchise. 

At the time of announcing his participation in the race for US House Speaker, Mr Hern said, “We need a different type of leader who has a proven track record of success, which is why I am running for Speaker of the House.”

We need a different type of leader who has a proven track record of success, which is why I’m running for Speaker of the House. pic.twitter.com/updVLkDCGh

— Congressman Kevin Hern (@repkevinhern) October 20, 2023

3. Mike Johnson 

Mike Johnson represents the 4th Congressional District of Louisiana.

He is also the Vice Chairman of House Republicans, as per his bio on X. 

Mr Johnson announced his candidacy in a detailed post on the social media platform. 

I’m in! pic.twitter.com/VSn14QkHEG

— Rep. Mike Johnson (@RepMikeJohnson) October 21, 2023

4. Jack Bergman

Jack Bergman, who represents the Michigan first district, has also been billed as one of the top contenders for the position of the House Of Speaker. 

Bergman officially announces his speaker bid. pic.twitter.com/tWZgliesBW

— Juliegrace Brufke (@juliegraceb) October 21, 2023

Mr Bergman is the highest-ranking combat Veteran to have ever served in the US House.