Florida Rep. Byron Donalds challenged Speaker Mike Johnson inside a closed-door House Republican conference meeting Wednesday morning to produce a workable plan to advance President Donald Trump’s policy agenda, according to three people in the room granted anonymity to describe the exchange.
Donalds is a member of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus that has proposed an alternative to Johnson’s one-big-bill strategy, and he spoke as Republicans across the House GOP’s ideological divides are growing anxious with the delays.
He argued to Johnson that the Freedom Caucus comes in for lots of criticism, according to the people present, but they at least have a workable plan — one that involves dividing the agenda into two bills. Johnson huddled privately for hours last night with members of the House Budget Committee, including some Freedom Caucus members, but did not emerge with a viable blueprint; he’s previously argued a two-bill approach would fail in the House.
Johnson said in a brief interview after the meeting that he assured Donalds “that we’re moving forward toward the final decision.” Separately, House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) said talks were “in a good spot” and that a committee meeting could be called by the end of the week to debate and advance a budget blueprint.
The budget plan wasn’t the only point of contention: Donalds, who is considering a run for governor, also got in a heated back-and-forth with the speaker over a brewing government funding deal with Democrats ahead of a March 14 shutdown deadline.
Donalds argued Republicans shouldn’t strike a deal with Democrats to fund the government and, likely, raise the debt ceiling. Johnson responded that they would need seven Democrats in the Senate to back any government funding plan due to the chamber’s filibuster rule.
“None of us” want to work with Democrats on government funding, Johnson said in the interview afterward. “The reality is you have to get 60 votes in the Senate, so that’s what dictates how all this goes.”
Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.
