The new House speaker is getting pushback from some fellow Republicans, including Texas congressman Chip Roy, after a recent spending deal.
Rep. Roy (R-TX) and others in the Freedom Caucus are outraged over a $1.66 trillion spending plan revealed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).
While the plan follows the deal struck this summer over debt ceiling deliberations, it was a compromise, as Johnson admitted.
“I am a conservative. This is not what we all want,” Johnson said, according to Fox News. “It’s not the best deal we could get if we were in charge of both chambers and the White House. But it’s the best deal we could broker under the circumstances.”
To Roy, the deal was “garbage” and could cost Johnson his speakership.
“I’m leaving [a motion to vacate] on the table. I’m not going to say I’m going to go file it tomorrow. I’m not saying I’m not going to file it tomorrow,” he said on Fox News’ The Steve Deace Show this week.
He also expressed doubt that the compromise would do any favors in the advancement of Republican political priorities, such as increased border security, as Johnson suggested it would.
“I will amend my sentence if we end up getting some massive policy wins attached to the spending, but I do not believe that we can possibly get enough policy wins on the riders to offset the damage of spending that much more money,” Roy said, per Fox News.
The ousting of former Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) made history last year, as previously covered by The Dallas Express. His tenure was plagued with difficulty from its shaky outset. He had also made history by requiring 15 rounds of voting to secure the gavel.
In addition to Roy, Reps. Bob Good (R-VA) and Warren Davidson (R-OH) voiced their strong opposition to Johnson’s negotiations with Democrats.
“I’m not going to sit there and listen to that drivel because he has no plans to do anything but surrender,” claimed Davidson as he walked out of a closed House Republican meeting on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.
Johnson said he was not concerned about the recent grumblings from his Republican colleagues over the spending deal.
“Chip Roy is one of my closest friends. We agree on almost everything in principle,” Johnson said, according to The Hill. “Look, leadership is tough. You take a lot of criticism. But remember, I am a hard-line conservative. That’s what they used to call me.”