House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) took questions from reporters while flanked by his Republican colleagues during a visit to the southern border in Texas.
Johnson visited Eagle Pass, Texas amid a surge in migrant crossings and efforts in the U.S. Senate to hammer out a bipartisan reform bill to tackle the issue. Republicans in the House have tied increased border security to aid packages for Ukraine and Israel and are now raising the specter of a possible government shutdown in the coming weeks if the issue is not addressed beforehand.
After some of his colleagues spoke and roundly attacked President Joe Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Johnson invited questions from the press – the first of which was not to his or his colleagues’ liking.
“Can we see a show of hands who will vote to shut down the government?” asked an off-camera reporter who was quickly drowned out by a collective groan from the GOP members.
“No we’re not going to do show of hands,” Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) could be heard saying. “We’re not in a classroom. We’re not doing show of hands.”
Johnson replied, “Well, here’s the here’s the deal on the on the shutdown.”
“We are working hard to get the appropriations bills done and the resolve of this group and that you’ve seen with our votes in carrying over and crushing the Christmas omnibus fever, as we did with our laddered approach in the two-step C.R., we have until mid-January, you have until early February to get the approach bills done. We have been working in earnest and in good faith with the Senate and the White House virtually every day through the holiday trying to come to an agreement,” he continued, adding:
Negotiations are still ongoing. It’s dragging on way too long. But the sooner we get that agreement, the sooner we’ll be able to get the appropriations bills done.
And let me tell you what our top two priorities are right now. In summary, we want to get the border closed and secured first, and we want to make sure that we reduce non-defense discretionary spending.
That is an important objective. You know why? Because we’ve crossed the threshold of $34 trillion in debt, $34 trillion today. It’s a landmark that is unimaginable, would have been unimaginable to previous generations. And here we are. And so we have a responsibility here of fiscal stewardship and fiscal sanity.
Watch the full clip above via C-SPAN.
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