House GOP may face another leadership battle after effort to avoid government shutdown

Geoff Bennett:

The federal government is just hours away from partially shutting down as Capitol Hill scrambles to finalize its $1.2 trillion spending deal.

Amna Nawaz:

The bill would keep the lights on, but could also cost the speaker his job.

Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins is here with more on the deal and why House Republicans now face the threat of yet another chaotic leadership surge.

Lisa, let's start with this shutdown deadline. We're just six hours away. Where do things stand?

Lisa Desjardins:

All right, the House passed this bill that would fund the rest of government; 70 percent of government agencies need funding or they will start shutting down this weekend.

They passed that barely today, just five or six votes to spare. The Senate now needs to act by midnight. Here is, at this minute, minute-to-minute decisions being made in the Senate. And, right now, Amna, it looks like we may, in fact, get to that midnight deadline without this getting through the Senate.

Senator Susan Collins has just said that, other staffers confirming they cannot — the two sides are not agreeing over amendments that they want to vote on for this. Everyone knows amendments won't pass. This is all election-year symbolic votes, but they can't agree on it.

Adding to this Senator Susan Collins, top Republican appropriator, her mother's funeral is tomorrow in Maine. She's never missed a vote. So this is not a factor in what happens, but it is adding to the pressure around all of this.

Right now, it looks like we could very well have a weekend shutdown.

Amna Nawaz:

Meanwhile, just yesterday, you were reporting on the rebellion, the dysfunction, the infighting among House Republicans.

Today, House Speaker Johnson is now moving forward with this spending bill. And one of his Republican members is moving to oust him. What's happening?

Lisa Desjardins:

As you're saying, this is connected.

As we were watching that dramatic floor vote to see if government would be funded, Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican from Georgia, took a small piece of paper over to what's called the hopper, where you file bills. I watched her put it in. It was a motion to vacate the chair.

She says that she is now, as they have the right under the new House rules — any member can raise this idea. This is how Kevin McCarthy was ousted. She says she is not yet invoking this. She didn't call for the vote today. But she says she intends to.

You can hear the difference between her and other Republicans as they came outside after this action.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA):

I do not wish to inflict pain on our conference and to throw the House in chaos. But this is basically a warning and it's time for us to go through the process, take our time and find a new speaker of the House that will stand with Republicans and our Republican majority, instead of standing with the Democrats.

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY):

Not only idiotic, but it actually does not do anything to advance the conservative movement, and, in fact, it undermines the country and our majority.

Lisa Desjardins:

So this, again, puts us in a position.

The House has gone on recess, but when they come back, the position will be again to have to deal potentially with a speaker fight. Marjorie Taylor Greene is not someone who backs down. The issue is, does she have any others with her right now?

Amna Nawaz:

It's hard to imagine another speaker fight among House Republicans. What does this mean going forward?

Lisa Desjardins:

All right, let's look at the votes exactly, because things are very tight in the House of Representatives.

First of all, when you're looking at the margins, it has changed because Ken Buck has left. We now have 218 Republicans after his departure, 213 Democrats. That means the majority in the House right now is 216. Johnson can lose just two Republicans and keep his speakership with all Republican support, or he will have to get support from Democrats.

I talked to Democratic Representative Tom Suozzi, what has just won that special election to replace George Santos. He right away said, "I will support Speaker Johnson."

So there's one Democratic vote. But other Democrats say, if we're going to support Speaker Johnson, we want to get something out of it. This is going to lead to perhaps days of instability, or maybe Speaker Johnson weathers the next two weeks. One thing is for sure. Marjorie Taylor Greene is going to make a lot of money in fund-raising probably off of this.

Amna Nawaz:

Meanwhile, there was more news related to those numbers you just showed us there. That slim Republican majority is about to get even slimmer?

Lisa Desjardins:

This was such a dramatic Friday. We also had an unexpected piece of news from a very high-profile Republican member, Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin.

He was just on this program, I believe it was last week, talking about the TikTok bill. He's an up-and-coming rising star in the party, 40 years old, four-termer. We know he was going to leave Congress this term, but he announced today he's leaving early. He's leaving mid-April. He says he talked to his family. He does not want to be in the House anymore.

Now, what this means is that narrow majority gets even slimmer. Let's look at that same graphic I just showed you. After he leaves, look at that. Now it's down to 217 Republicans, and then, look, Johnson could lose just one Republican vote and get something through the House.

So, on the positive side, they are going to have to work together, Democrats and Republicans, to pass legislation. On the negative side, they don't have a good history of being able to do that, and it's an election year. Speaker Johnson, he is someone who talks about the Bible. I hope he's written — read the Book of Job, because he's having so much political difficulty and challenges.

We will see how he gets through it.

Amna Nawaz:

We will see. Lisa Desjardins covering a busy Friday on Capitol Hill.

Lisa, thank you.

Lisa Desjardins:

You're welcome.