Before the week was out, he would have to rescue an expiring surveillance law, fund immigration enforcement, pass a farm bill and manage the fallout from a gunman who fired shots near the White House Correspondents Dinner over the weekend, all while hosting a state visit from King Charles III.
The confluence of deadlines has turned the House floor into a high wire act. Republicans are trying to push through an extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by Tuesday, a budget plan to end the Department of Homeland Security shutdown by Wednesday and a farm bill by Thursday that many members say is essential to their midterm victories in November. Each undertaking is deeply complicated and rife with intraparty warfare.
Johnson is facing a rebellion from his rank and file all the way up to some of his senior members over his plan to move ahead with the budget resolution the Senate advanced last week. That measure would only address immigration enforcement funding, but hard liners insist they need a comprehensive follow up to last summer’s tax and spending megabill to help them stave off massive losses in the November elections. “It’s going to be a circus,” one Republican aide said of the week ahead.
On the farm bill, a revolt from the MAHA wing of the party has complicated Johnson’s path forward, while ultraconservatives who blocked his last bid to reauthorize Section 702 could do so again. The speaker will need nearly every Republican to advance all three critical items, and none are guaranteed to survive the week. GOP leaders are already losing precious floor time Tuesday when King Charles III, who is in town for a state visit at the White House, will address a joint session of Congress.
Security Concerns Cast a Shadow Over Legislative Talks
Hanging over it all are the events of this past weekend’s White House Correspondents Dinner, where a gunman fired shots near a ballroom where the president, vice president, the speaker of the House and Cabinet officials in the line of presidential succession were all dining. It is not clear yet how the incident will affect negotiations around extending Section 702 or passing an immigration funding bill by April 30 and June 1, respectively. But lawmakers late Saturday night and over the weekend said it underscored the need to quickly reopen DHS, which houses the Secret Service.
The shooting has added a new layer of urgency to the DHS funding fight, though it remains unclear whether the security scare will shift the political dynamics among holdout Republicans. Some members have privately expressed frustration that the shutdown has left the agency responsible for protecting the Capitol and its occupants without a full budget, even as threats against lawmakers have risen in recent years.
Johnson now faces the delicate task of herding his conference through a gauntlet of votes with almost no margin for error. With the farm bill, the surveillance law and the immigration funding package all hanging in the balance, the speaker’s ability to hold his majority together will be tested in real time. By the time King Charles departs Washington, the fate of all three measures could be decided.
