How Congress will eventually choose to handle the December government shutdown deadline is largely up to President-elect Donald Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday.
The speaker said he “can make a case for a number of different options that are on the table” for keeping cash flowing to federal agencies beyond the Dec. 20 deadline. The two obvious choices: punting the deadline into Trump’s second term or striking a full bipartisan agreement that lasts through next September, when the current fiscal year ends.
“Again, this is a consensus-building exercise, as always,” Johnson told reporters Tuesday morning. “The president’s preference on that will carry a lot of weight obviously.”
“I just have not had the opportunity, with everything else going on, to talk about that in detail yet,” the speaker added, a day before House Republicans are scheduled to hold leadership elections.
