BREAKING: GOP is 'unified' on spending plan, Mike Johnson says shutdown will be averted

House Speaker Mike Johnson declared to reporters on Friday afternoon that GOP House members are "unified" on the spending package and said that a government shutdown will not happen.

When asked about the spending package by reporters at the Capitol, Johnson responded, "We have a unified Republican conference. There's a unanimous agreement in the room that we need to move forward. I will not telegraph to you the specific details of that yet because I got a couple of things I gotta wrap up in a few moments upstairs. But I expect that we will be proceeding forward. We will not have a government shutdown."

 

This comes after two government spending packages, one unveiled on Wednesday, and one brought to the floor on Thursday failed to pass through Congress.

The Washington Examiner reported that Johnson is going to drop the debt limit suspension demand from President-elect Donald Trump that led to multiple GOP House members voting against the spending package on Thursday. The House will vote on a clean CR in order to maintain levels of spending until March 14. 

The package will come to the floor for a vote under suspension, which means that two-thirds of the body will have to vote in favor for it to pass. However, Democratic leaders have indicated they will not vote for the package, per the outlet. 

However, the GOP still has the option of splitting up the package into three bills, a clean CR, disaster aid, as well as a standalone package for farmers. These bills would likely be pushed forward by the Rules Commitee, and would only need a simple majority of the House to pass. However, if the three separated bills go through the usual committee process, the House may have to wait to vote for them on Saturday, meaning a shutdown would take place, but for a short time. 

“There may be a technical shutdown over the course of, you know, the evening or the weekend. Those generally don’t mean anything,” Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) told reporters. “I mean, nobody gets furloughed, nothing really happens … if there is a few-hour lapse.”