Speaker Mike Johnson says spending deal with Schumer remains in place despite pressure from hardliners to walk away

Originally Published: 12 JAN 24 11:30 ET Updated: 12 JAN 24 12:41 ET By Clare Foran, Manu Raju and Haley Talbot, CNN

    (CNN) -- Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Friday morning that he remains committed to the topline spending deal he struck with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a blow to hardline conservatives who have been pushing him to walk away from the agreement.

In comments to reporters on Capitol Hill, the Louisiana Republican touted the topline that was announced last weekend and said that the agreement “remains” in place.

The announcement will help keep bipartisan efforts to fund the government on track, but risks further angering conservatives, a dynamic that highlights Johnson’s precarious position. As he navigates an extremely narrow majority, the speaker, who is still relatively new to the job, is caught between competing factions of his own conference, hardliners and moderates.

While he affirmed a commitment to the topline spending deal, there is still much more to be done to avert a shutdown and Johnson has not yet made the next steps clear. The consensus on Capitol Hill is that lawmakers will need to pass a short-term extension next week to avert a partial shutdown, but Johnson has not yet said how he believes that should be handled.

Hardline conservatives ramped up pressure on Johnson this week to walk away from the topline spending deal struck with Schumer and expressed optimism after meeting with Johnson on Thursday that the speaker could revise the agreement, which would set spending at close to $1.66 trillion overall.

On Friday, however, Johnson told reporters that the deal is intact.

“Our topline agreement remains,” Johnson said. “We are getting our next steps together and we are working toward a robust appropriations process so stay tuned for all of that to develop.”

In a change from recent other funding fights, Congress is confronting not one but two government shutdown deadlines early this year – on January 19 and February 2.

If Johnson had walked away from the topline agreement, that would have created a massive breach of trust with the Senate and could have put Congress on a path to a shutdown.

But Johnson defended the deal on Friday.

“After weeks of hard-fought negotiations, we achieved a strong topline agreement that allows our appropriations committee and all those who work on this to complete the appropriations process,” Johnson said. “The topline agreement includes hard won concessions to cut more billions from the IRS giveaway and the Covid era slush funds,” he said.

He added, “It brings Congress much closer to regular order which is our big commitment here and keeping with my commitment to bring members into the legislative process I’ve spoken and received feedback this week from many members all across the Republican conference. That’s a very important part of this.”

Looming over everything is the possibility that conservatives could push to remove Johnson the same way they ousted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy – though as of now that does not seem to be a real threat.

Republican Rep. Bob Good of Virginia, the chairman of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, told CNN that he remains opposed to Johnson’s spending agreement with Schumer.

“I don’t agree with the announced deal between the Senate and the House that came from the weekend, I’ve vehemently opposed it publicly and privately and I will continue to do so,” said Good, noting that Johnson did not inform him ahead of time that he was planning to stick with the agreement.

But pressed on whether he has lost confidence in Johnson’s ability to lead the conference, Good argued that it is too early in the speaker’s tenure to pass judgement.

“It’s a ridiculous supposition that you would – that someone that’s been a speaker for two and a half months, or been the leader of our party for two and a half months, would be treated the same as someone who was in that position for years and is the reason why we needed new leadership,” he said.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Morgan Rimmer and Melanie Zanona contributed to this report.

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