Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson faced backlash from his conservative colleagues on Sunday after announcing that congressional leaders had reached a tentative agreement to fund the government in 2024.
Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, was appointed the 56th speaker of the House of Representatives in October 2023 after Kevin McCarthy was ousted from the position the same month for negotiating with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown.
Senate and House leaders announced a 2024 budget deal of nearly $1.66 trillion on Sunday. Despite the agreement, it’s unclear whether Congress will be able to pass it into law in time to avert a partial government shutdown as the deadline looms less than two weeks away.
In a letter that Johnson sent to his Congressional colleagues on Sunday obtained by Newsweek, the speaker said that after weeks of debate, “we have secured hard-fought concessions” to allow the Appropriations Committee to finally begin negotiating and completing the annual appropriations bills. Johnson’s letter said the agreement includes $886 billion for defense and $704 billion for nondefense.
Read more at Newsweek.com
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