(CNN) — House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday revealed his long-awaited plans for a massive $95 billion emergency funding request to pay for defense spending, including for the Iran war, and to promote President Donald Trump’s push to crack down on election laws.
It’s a massive gamble by Johnson, with no certainty that it can pass the House, let alone the Senate, with a huge faction of the party still uneasy about the White House’s strategy in Iran – and about putting the costs on the nation’s credit card. But the Pentagon is applying heavy pressure, urging lawmakers to pass the funding by the August recess.
Johnson’s plan, which still needs to go through multiple steps before it reaches the House floor, would spend up to $73 billion on the Pentagon and national security, including backfilling key agencies that have so far funded the Iran war.
It also includes up to $12 billion in agriculture aid to help struggling farmers amid the White House’s ongoing trade war. It would include up to $10 billion for state election grants aimed at promoting Trump’s SAVE America Act.
Perhaps the most controversial part is what is not included in the outline: Republicans are not planning to pay for the legislation with the anti-fraud measures that GOP hardliners once planned. House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, among others, had previously described the third agenda bill as a chance for a once-in-a-generation revamp of government programs to save taxpayer dollars and prevent fraud. He had been looking at healthcare programs, as well as the earned income tax credit program.
Instead, the cost of the bill will largely be added to the already ballooning national deficit — a huge point of contention for House and Senate conservatives.
One House GOP hardliner, Rep. Warren Davidson, put it bluntly in a post on X: “Bankrupt nations are difficult to defend.”
GOP sources have told CNN they couldn’t find political support to pay for the bill with cuts to government programs. It would also complicate the bill’s path in the Senate, where targeting any of those healthcare programs would trigger tough votes for GOP senators that could end up sinking the bill.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune warned earlier this week that any attempt to pay for the bill through healthcare program cuts could allow Democrats to weaponize the bill by creating “a lot of very challenging amendment votes” that could pass with a few GOP defectors.
Johnson and White House officials came up with the plan after weeks of discussion, including this weekend at a Camp David summit. He announced this week that Republicans would be going ahead with plans for a third bill, dubbed Trump’s agenda 3.0 – but did not say what would be in it.
The-CNN-Wire
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