The fate of the federal government now rests on a razor-thin, one-vote Republican margin. Following a blunt warning from Democrats that they won’t help pass a funding fix, Speaker Mike Johnson took to Meet the Press Sunday morning to declare that he is prepared to go it alone.
Facing a revolt from progressives like Representative Ro Khanna, who solidified his “firm no” stance on Sunday, Johnson announced a shift in strategy: the House will move to fund 11 of the 12 federal agencies by Tuesday, intentionally carving out the controversial Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to buy two weeks for further negotiations.
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Johnson’s confidence is a high-stakes gamble. With a narrow majority and zero expected help from the Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ camp, the Speaker has almost no room for error.
He pushed back against the idea that his “razor-thin” margin would lead to failure, insisting that Republicans will “do the responsible thing” to avoid a repeat of last year’s record-breaking 43-day shutdown.
Johnson framed the standoff as a choice between governing and “playing games,” noting that services like the Coast Guard, TSA, and FEMA—currently responding to a major winter storm on the East Coast—are being put at risk by the deadlock.
The path forward, however, is anything but smooth. Representative Ro Khanna’s appearance on the same program underscored the intensity of the opposition.
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Khanna isn’t just voting no; he is actively campaigning against the bill, citing a massive $75 billion “tripling” of the ICE budget as a dealbreaker and a violation of constitutional rights.
While Johnson aims to “bracket” the DHS funding to keep the rest of the government running, he still needs to corral a nearly unanimous Republican caucus to pass the necessary procedural rules.
If even a couple of GOP hardliners jump ship, the Speaker’s Tuesday deadline could vanish, leaving the government in limbo as the partisan divide over border enforcement and civil liberties reaches a fever pitch.
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