House Republican leaders are touting a major victory by passing another of their 12 spending bills Thursday, just a day after Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was sworn in to lead the chamber.
“This is the first step in getting our credits,” Johnson told Fox News Digital in a statement Thursday evening.
“I promised we were going to get back to work for the American people and today we proved it.”
The Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill, which funds the Department of Energy and other related issues, passed with almost no Republican opposition.
GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., said the bill “eliminates billions in unnecessary funding for policies unrelated to the Green New Deal” and “prioritizes funding to maintain a strong national security”.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson helped push a spending bill through the House, just one day after being elected to the top job. (Getty Images)
Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., said on prioritizing fiscal responsibility while unleashing American energy. Meanwhile, how many appropriations bills has Schumer passed the Senate? the answer is always zero.”
The bill reduces federal spending in this sector by about $857 billion from this year’s funding levels. This is the fifth appropriations bill passed by House Republicans and the first under Johnson’s term.
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Republican lawmakers appear to be moving forward with a new sense of unity and optimism after coming together to unanimously elect Johnson earlier this week.
The House had been deadlocked for nearly a month after ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was ousted by a majority vote of eight Republicans and all House Democrats.
House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik also celebrated the bill’s passage. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Federal spending has been a major point of contention for House Republicans thus far, with members of different ideological sides clashing at times over funding levels and various amendments.
Government funding was supposed to run out on October 1, but McCarthy put a stopgap extension known as a continuing resolution in the House at the 11th hour, narrowly avoiding a shutdown. He gave lawmakers until Nov. 17 to cobble together 12 individual spending bills.
Johnson acknowledged the deadline was “rapidly approaching” in an interview Thursday night on “Hannity.”
“We are expediting the process as quickly as possible. That was my commitment to my colleagues when they nominated me to be speaker of the House,” Johnson said. “We passed one of the appropriations bills just a few hours ago…it was a big box we had to check and we did it.”
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The speaker acknowledged that another continuing resolution may be needed to buy more time to pass the remaining seven appropriations bills, but signaled that it should come with “certain conditions,” rather than an extension clear of the funding priorities of the previous Democratic-led Congress.
Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy pushed four of 12 appropriations bills through the House before being ousted. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Image)
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Just before the president’s vote Wednesday, Johnson presented his colleagues with a plan with deadlines for introducing the remaining funding bills.
However, even if it were passed before the deadline, the House would still have to find common ground with the Democratic-controlled Senate – which is increasing its appropriations bills to a higher figure of around $120 billion. dollars to that of the House Republican Party.