Speaker Johnson lays out his impossible agenda

Newly minted House Speaker Mike Johnson emerged from the 22 days of chaos created by his colleagues as the last man they could stand to vote for. That landed him smack-dab in the center of the frying pan of disorder that is a government just 23 days away from running out of operating funds. Never fear, Johnson said in a letter to his colleagues earlier this week: He’s got this. That display of confidence is the first tell that this inexperienced lawmaker, elected in 2016 and with no history of leadership in the conference, is in for a doozy of a ride.

“We all understand that our next Speaker must be prepared to negotiate from a position of strength with the Democrat-controlled Senate and White House,” Johnson wrote. “The only way to secure that position is for the House to have passed all twelve of our appropriations measures,” he continued. “I am confident we can work together to accomplish that objective quickly, in a manner that delivers on our principled commitments to rein in wasteful spending, and put our country back on a path to fiscal responsibility.”

Then he lays out his schedule to complete work on eight of the remaining 12 appropriations bills in the next three weeks, before the Nov. 17 government funding deadline. That includes wrapping up the Energy and Water Development funding bill in the next two days. At least it has committee approval.