McCarthy's 'final struggles' threaten to haunt Johnson's government shutdown fight

Roughly 11 months have passed since former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s historic ouster in October 2023. Now, his successor, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is navigating the same fraught political web on government funding that amounted to one of McCarthy's "final struggles" – but it is not yet clear that he will meet the same fate.

House Republicans are huddling for a conference-wide call on Wednesday, when Johnson is expected to roll out his plan for avoiding a government shutdown by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. 

The plan, endorsed by former President Donald Trump, would extend the current fiscal year’s government funding levels through March and would be paired with a GOP bill requiring proof of citizenship to be part of the voter registration process, multiple sources told Fox News Digital.

However, at least three House Republicans who spoke with Fox News Digital would not commit to voting for such a short-term bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR). Meanwhile, others questioned the wisdom of spending the few weeks in session before Election Day on a bill virtually certain to die in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

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Most conservatives and Trump allies in the House, however, have emphatically backed the plan.

"Certainly conservatives, spending hawks, frankly any Republican that doesn’t want to give Democrats or the kind of…uniparty the pen in December, so we want to kick spending into the new year," Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, explained to Fox News Digital. "Certainly kicking it to March gives us that benefit. And then we should have a robust fight over whether or not we should be very clear that only citizens are voting."

Five Democrats voted with Republicans earlier this year to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, but it has since been stalled in the Senate. The White House is also opposed.

Roy, however, was also part of last year’s doomed effort to pass a conservative CR with House Republicans’ marquee border security bill attached – one that was similarly panned by Democratic leaders. 

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That CR failed in late September after 21 Republicans, mainly opposed to a CR on principle, voted against it. 

McCarthy was then forced to put a "clean" funding extension on the House floor hours before a partial government shutdown on Oct. 1, which was later the public catalyst for his ouster by eight fellow House Republicans.

When asked whether he was concerned about history repeating itself, Roy said, "Last year, I had good friends that fell on both sides of that divide. But I think there’s one considerable difference, and that is President Trump has publicly called for us to fight."

Trump urged House Republicans to leverage a shutdown to get a CR with the SAVE Act passed on Monica Crowley’s podcast earlier this week.

Additionally, with the November House races expected to run close in many key districts, these weeks could be Republicans’ last chance to try to force through conservative priorities before Democrats possibly win back control of the chamber.

However, with the slim chances of it being taken up by the Senate or White House, the possibility of a government shutdown just before Election Day could put those same vulnerable Republicans in a tight spot.

"Whether it passes the House or not is irrelevant and those who are pushing for SAVE to be included know that. Or maybe they don’t. I’m not sure which is worse," one senior House GOP aide told Fox News Digital. 

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However, Roy suggested he was not worried about a potential shutdown, arguing his constituents "don’t give two flying s---s" about the politics of government funding.

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., similarly said, "I’m worried about a stolen election…the legacy media makes these shutdowns worse than they are."

Meanwhile, like last year’s conservative CR, it is not clear this spending patch will even have enough support within the GOP to pass.

Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., a House Freedom Caucus member in his final term who voted both against last year’s conservative CR and for McCarthy’s ouster, is already against the plan.

"It's disingenuous and dishonest to even do, because there's no one in Congress that believes that by attaching the SAVE act to the CR...we're going to get the SAVE Act passed," Rosendale, who has never supported a CR, told Fox News Digital. 

He also said the play violates House GOP leaders’ pledge for single-subject legislation.

However, he would not say if he would support ousting Johnson over it.

"I think people keep doing the same thing, hoping they will have different results, because there’s different people doing it," Rosendale said.

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When pressed on Johnson multiple times, Rosendale said, "There’s plenty of people that you can go, they’re more than glad to make comments about other members and about leadership. All I know is what I’m going to do."

Burchett, another anti-McCarthy rebel, said he would "lean towards supporting" the CR but would not commit.

He said, however, that Johnson was not in danger of being ousted, adding, "A lot of other things went on" before "one of the final struggles" about spending in McCarthy’s case.

McCarthy did not make himself available for an interview when asked by Fox News Digital. Johnson’s office also would not comment on the record about the CR.