House Speaker Mike Johnson was on “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the CR to keep the Federal Government open. He explained that Democrat leaders were working against the resolution for their own political gain.
“We are less than 72 hours away from a shutdown of the federal government. Republicans are seeking a clean continuing resolution,” Bartiromo said.
“The Office of Management and Budget has instructed federal agencies to prepare for a permanent massive downsizing of government staff during their potential government shutdown, specifically targeting employees and programs that are not legally mandated to continue,” Bartiromo continued.
“What are you expecting? I know you have a meeting at the White House tomorrow. Do you think you will be able to avoid a shutdown?” Bartiromo asked Speaker Johnson.
“I certainly hope so. The purpose of the meeting is so that the President can assemble the four leaders, you know the two top leaders in both chambers to come in and have this discussion, and I talked with him at length yesterday about this. And he is going to tell Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries to stop playing political games,” Johnson said.
Speaker Johnson explained how Congress is actually supposed to work on bills throughout the year to ensure accountability of taxpayer money and said that it has not followed that path in quite some time.
“The statutes in federal law require Congress to do 12 separate appropriations bills every year. That’s the only way to ensure stewardship of taxpayer funds, to spend less money and make government more responsible,” Johnson said.
“Congress hasn’t really worked that way in a long time. Typically, instead, what we have is a giant omnibus spending bill at the end of the year because the can is kicked down the road,” Johnson explained.
“For the first time since 2019, we have an actual conference committee between the two chambers to work out the differences,” Johnson said.
Speaker Johnson explained that Senator Schumer was more interested in adding massive amounts of spending instead of working together to pass the bill.
“What did Chuck Schumer do in exchange for that? He declined it. They voted against it, and he said and no, instead, I want to add 1.5 trillion dollars in new spending to a seven week stop gap bill and I want as you mentioned, we want to reinstate free healthcare to illegal aliens paid for by US taxpayer dollars,” Johnson said of Schumer.
“Lawmakers left and right have been saying we’ve got to get back to pre-covid spending. How do you get back to pre-covid spending when you are bringing some of those subsidies that were issued during covid?” Bartiromo asked.
“Right now, we just need a stop gap funding measure to keep the government open so we can have those debates,” Johnson said.
“There is one reason, and one reason alone that Schumer and Jeffries are doing this. They are trying to show a fight,” Johnson said.
“We are just keeping the doors open, but they want to shut it,” Johnson said.
Watch:
Today on @SundayFutures with @MariaBartiromo, House Speaker Mike Johnson @SpeakerJohnson spoke about Democrats against passing a clean CR to keep the federal government open.@FoxNews pic.twitter.com/mwQdbWf7D0
— SundayMorningFutures (@SundayFutures) September 28, 2025
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