New president of the lower house tries to rally Republicans to avoid closure

The president of the House of Representatives from the United States, Michael Johnsonwill face its first major legislative battle this week as it tries to get the fractious Republican majority to support an unconventional plan to avoid a partial government shutdown starting Saturday.

Some hardline House Republicans already reject Johnson’s proposal for a two-phase stopgap bill that would not cut spending, an initiative “clean” of the kind that led to the historic ouster of Johnson’s predecessor, Kevin McCarthy.

This is the third fiscal battle in Washington this year, after one that lasted months during the spring over the national debt of more than $31 trillion, which brought the federal government to the brink of default.

The ongoing partisan dispute, accentuated by divisions within the narrow 221-212 Republican majority in the House of Representatives, led Moody’s late Friday to downgrade the outlook for the U.S. credit rating from stable to “negative”, while noting that high interest rates would continue to make the cost of loans more expensive.

The country’s deficit reached US$1.695 trillion in the fiscal year that ended September 30.

Some Democratic congressmen were open to the plan Johnsonwhich would have to be approved by the Senate, with a Democratic majority, and signed into law by President Joe Biden before midnight on Friday to avoid the suspension of pay for up to 4 million federal workers, the closure of national parks and would interrupt everything, from financial supervision to scientific research.

“I am committed to returning Washington to normal order, but you cannot fix a system broken for decades in a matter of weeks”he declared on Sunday Johnsona Louisiana lawmaker who had never previously held a senior position in Congress, on his social media.

Johnson unveiled the unusual two-phase continuing resolution on Saturday. She seemed aimed at finding support from two warring Republican factions: hardliners, who wanted different funding timelines for different federal agencies, and centrists, who called for a vehicle “clean” without spending cuts or conservative policy provisions that Democrats would reject.

Lawmakers are at odds over discretionary spending for fiscal year 2024. Democrats and many Republicans want to stick to the $1.59 trillion level that Biden and McCarthy set in their debt ceiling agreement earlier this year. Hardliners argue for a lower figure of $120 billion. But in recent days they have shown signs of a clear willingness to compromise.