House Speaker Mike Johnson defended his position in the spending fight against conservative critics, arguing that he is trying to turn the page but that it is time to move on and focus on the next fiscal year, which he plans to do quickly.
“The appropriations process is ugly,” Johnson said. “Democracy is ugly. This is the way it works every year – always has — except that we’ve instituted some new innovations. We broke the omnibus fever, right? That’s how Washington has been run for years. We’re trying to turn the aircraft carrier back to real budgeting and spending reform. This was an important thing to break it up into smaller pieces.”
The funding bill is expected to be voted on in the House this afternoon, and then be transmitted over to the Senate. Johnson said Republicans “did have a say; they had a process” as the House worked on individual bills, but not all those bills could pass on the floor.
“When it gets down to the final negotiation of the final revisions in each of them, that’s a smaller subset of members because it’s complicated and complex, but that bill text is going to be posted this weekend. All of our members will have 72 hours to review it. That’s our commitment. That’s our rule. We’re respecting it. And that’s the only reason we need the process CR (continuing resolution) to allow us time to do that. If I did it the way,” he said.
Johnson also insisted that he won’t back off his view that the border has to be more secure before he is willing to move on Ukraine aid, an issue that divides his conference and conservatives have warned could cost him his job if he moves on.
Source: www.cnn.com