Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., turned up the heat on Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., expressing "anger" over the failure of the House to advance any appropriations bills before the recess and declaring an end to his "honeymoon phase."
Johnson might be just two months into his speaker post, but Greene told the Washington Examiner she and others "expected him to do a lot better" before now.
At issue for MTG, in addition to not passing any spending bills, is that Johnson chose to split the bills into two deadlines and his handling of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
"So far, [the appropriations process] hasn't moved forward, and that's what we're all very angry about," Greene told the Examiner. "Of course, we were all giving him a little bit of grace because he got thrown into the speaker seat at a hard time [and] was not ready at all. This was a job I don't think he was prepared to do, and it just happened over a three-week battle over who we were going to elect for speaker. However, it was the job he wanted; and so I think the grace period is over."
Johnson was elected speaker on Oct. 25, three weeks and a day after House Republicans — with a push from Democrats who voted en bloc — ousted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
Johnson was staring down a Nov. 17 deadline to fund the government and avoid a federal shutdown the minute he was elected. Johnson also faced the same pushback from members of his own caucus over the appropriations, forcing another stopgap to Jan. 19, 2024, on one batch of spending bills and Feb. 2 for the rest.
"[The spending bills] should have been done well before now, and it was extremely disappointing that we didn't even try to pass at least one of them in December," Greene told the Examiner.
Then there was the short-term extension of FISA, baked into the National Defense Authorization Act, which Johnson finalized with the Senate, bypassing the NDAA conference committee, on which Greene serves.
"Those of us on the conference committee didn't get to participate at all in the policies for the NDAA," she said. "Not one single bit."
Topping it off, some conservative policies — including the Pentagon's controversial abortion policy — were stripped from the final version of the NDAA, while additional military aid for Ukraine was put back in.
"That was a complete disaster and an extreme disappointment for myself and for many people," Greene said. "It was shocking, really. And that was pretty much after the honeymoon period was over, and we expected him to do a lot better."
The House will be back in session Jan. 9.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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