Johnson turns up shutdown pressure on Democrats as GOP unease grows

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., appears to be holding firm on his strategy for pressuring Senate Democrats to agree to end the government shutdown, he indicated in both public and private comments Thursday. 

But even as he and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., continue with their plans, some House GOP lawmakers are growing nervous about the potential fallout.

House Republicans held a private call Thursday where Johnson briefed them on the current state of play. And while GOP lawmakers were largely unified behind their leader, Fox News Digital was told, several did express concerns about optics coming from the House and Senate as the shutdown is poised to enter a tenth day.

Johnson had previously canceled House votes this week to keep national attention on Democrats’ resistance to the GOP’s plan to fund the government. 

SENATE GOP RESISTS ‘NUCLEAR OPTION’ AS DEM SHUTDOWN STANDOFF DEEPENS

The speaker told House Republicans he would give them 48 hours’ notice before the next House votes were called but did not say when that would be, Fox News Digital was told — after publicly stating multiple times that their return would depend on Senate Democrats.

He said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Wednesday: “As soon as [Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.] decides to stop playing games, we’ll bring everybody back here and get right back to regular session.”

But at least three House Republicans are advocating for the chamber to return next week whether the shutdown is resolved or not, including two on the Thursday call.

Reps. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., and Julie Fedorchak, R-N.D., both spoke up in favor of returning next week, sources told Fox News Digital.

SENATE DEMOCRATS DEFY WHITE HOUSE WARNINGS, AGAIN BLOCK GOP BID TO REOPEN GOVERNMENT

Obernolte told Johnson the House had more work to do beyond spending bills, adding, “None of that is getting done,” Fox News Digital was told.

“I think we’re going to get to a point where it’s damaging to continue to keep the House out of session. I think we’ve gotten to that point,” Obernolte said, Fox News Digital was told.

Fedorchak said she believed House Republicans would be in a better strategic position if they were in D.C., sources said.

But Johnson reiterated his 48-hour pledge and said a recess next week was not a “final call” but pointed out that most House Republicans thought it was the right decision, sources said.

Meanwhile, Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., made his concerns public on Wednesday, writing on X, “What the House has done is pass a 7-week Continuing Resolution. The entire reason a CR is necessary is that Congress has not done its job in passing a timely budget. The Speaker shouldn’t even think about canceling session for a third straight week.”

On the Thursday call, Johnson also indicated he would not hold a standalone vote on keeping the military paid during the shutdown, sources said.

The speaker argued it was a push led by Democrats who were seeking political cover despite rejecting the GOP’s funding plan — which would keep the military paid and the entire government open through at least Nov. 21.

As it stands, service members on active duty are deemed “essential” and must keep working, but they could miss their next paychecks on Oct. 15 if the shutdown is ongoing.

“The entire government has to be reopened simultaneously,” Johnson said, sources told Fox News Digital.

But that’s also been met with some concern by House lawmakers.

Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., who is leading a bill to ensure troops are paid during a shutdown, wrote on X Wednesday, “The President has made it clear: we must pay our troops. I’m urging the Speaker and our House leadership to immediately pass my bill to ensure our service members, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck while supporting their families, receive the pay they’ve earned.”

Meanwhile, two other House Republicans — Reps. John Rutherford, R-Fla., and Tom Barrett, R-Mich. — spoke up during lawmakers’ call on Thursday with concerns about the Senate GOP not moving to bypass Democrats altogether to reopen the government.

Under current Senate rules, most legislation needs to meet a 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster and allow for debate.

But there have been several exceptions made in modern times, triggered by the Senate majority leader, in which rules have been changed to lower the threshold to 51 votes for certain issues. Senate Republicans most recently used it earlier this year to overcome Democrats’ blockade on President Donald Trump’s nominees.

However, Federal funding legislation still needs 60 votes, something Rutherford and Barrett said the Senate should consider changing.

Rutherford specifically warned he was concerned it could open Republicans up to “bad messaging” if the Senate did not use the so-called “nuclear option” to ensure the military was paid on time when it was used so recently for presidential nominees.

Johnson, as leader of the House of Representatives, does not have a say over what the Senate does. But he addressed a similar query during a Q&A with Americans on C-SPAN Thursday morning.

“The filibuster is a tradition there that people on both sides cherish, and the reason is if you blow that up, and you go nuclear on something like a CR, their argument is you would open a Pandora’s box,” Johnson said.

“What if the socialists take over the Senate, and Democrat socialists are in charge, and they want to grow government to take over the means of production, and they don’t have any safeguard there, and they could do it with a bare minimum majority next time?”

The government shutdown is poised to roll into a tenth day on Friday after Senate Democrats rejected the GOP’s funding plan a seventh time.

Republicans are pushing a short-term extension of fiscal year (FY) 2025 funding levels, called a continuing resolution (CR), to give lawmakers more time to reach a deal on FY2026 spending levels.

But Democrats, infuriated at being sidelined in the discussions, are demanding serious concessions on healthcare provisions in exchange for their support for a spending deal.