House Republicans struggle with government funding as shutdown looms

Newly minted Speaker Mike Johnson is running smack dab into the same spending problems that plagued his predecessor, raising the prospects of a government shutdown if Congress doesn’t act between now and next Friday and further exposing divisions within the conference.

House Republican leaders were forced to abruptly pull two year-long spending bills from the floor this week amid opposition from both ends of their badly divided GOP conference. And Johnson is still grappling with a strategy to keep the government’s lights on without sparking a right-wing rebellion, with the current funding patch set to expire in eight days – an all too familiar dynamic for Republican leadership.