House Republicans are proposing a two-tiered plan to fund the government, raising the risk of a shutdown

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Less than a week before federal spending laws are set to expire, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Saturday unveiled a novel and uncertain plan to temporarily extend funding – but it has already been rejected by the Senate and the White House, which A government shutdown increases the chances.

According to three people familiar with the House leader’s plans, Johnson’s proposed stopgap funding bill, also called a continuing resolution or “CR,” calls for funding for different federal agencies to expire at different times, putting it at risk of repeated partial government shutdowns .

The House speaker described the two-tier proposal as a move to avoid the massive spending bills considered by Congress in the past.

“Divorcing the Czech Republic from the debates over additional funding puts our conference in the best position to fight for fiscal responsibility, control over Ukraine aid and meaningful policy changes at our southern border,” Johnson said in a statement posted on X , formerly known as, was released on Twitter.

Funding for military and veterans programs, agriculture and food agencies, and the departments of transportation, housing and urban development would run through Jan. 19. Remaining federal funding — covering the departments of State, Justice, Commerce, Labor and Health, and Human Services, among others — would expire on Feb. 2.

The plans are fluid and could change as the House considers the legislation, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe private conversations between lawmakers. Unless a new spending bill is passed before the current law expires, the federal government will close at 12:01 a.m. on November 18.

The two-tier proposal was initially advocated by the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, whose views often influence Johnson. But key members of that group have recently been skeptical of the plan because it did not include spending cuts.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.) wrote on

Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Tex.), chairman of the House Budget Committee, told reporters earlier this week that the phased plan is “politically DOA” because it has no Democratic support.

The Democratic-controlled Senate and the Biden administration have already rejected “ladder-by-ladder” CR, something that has never been attempted before.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chairwoman of the Senate Budget Committee, called the phased funding plan Friday “the craziest, stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of.”

The passage of the measure in the deeply divided House of Representatives is anything but certain. Republican infighting has prevented Johnson from winning votes on longer-term spending bills for individual agencies and programs, and smaller-government fiscal policy hawks have said they would support a CR only if there were deep spending cuts or staggered budget deadlines for different parts of the government contains . However, it is not clear whether other Republicans will support the new plan.

The plan would not include any of the billions of dollars President Biden has requested for military aid to Ukraine or for global humanitarian assistance to address the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Earlier this month, the House of Representatives passed a bill giving Israel $14 billion for the war in Gaza, but coupled it with cuts to IRS funding that the White House and Senate Democrats have rejected.

Johnson and the GOP have a narrow majority in the House of Representatives. If more than four Republicans reject the speaker’s proposal, Johnson would have to rely on Democratic votes to extend funding and avert a shutdown – a red line for some conservatives, including a small group that supported Johnson’s predecessor, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to give up the speaker’s gavel after allowing passage of an earlier spending bill on a bipartisan basis.

The standoff threatens to send millions of federal workers home without pay while also suspending a wide range of government services, including national parks, key IRS functions and federal disaster relief. A prolonged closure could have more severe impacts, affecting food safety inspections and public services for the poor, among thousands of other federal operations.

This year alone, the U.S. government has come close to missing key financial deadlines twice. In May, McCarthy and Biden agreed to avoid breaching the country’s borrowing limit, saying there were only days left before a potentially catastrophic impact on financial markets. Then, in September, with less than 24 hours to spare, McCarthy relied on Democratic votes to approve a government funding measure — which angered the far right and quickly led to his ouster.

The looming deadline presents a similar test for the new House speaker, who has held the post for less than three weeks and has never chaired a congressional committee.

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) took procedural steps Friday to allow passage of a funding bill in the upper chamber if the House fails to act. Leaders of both parties in the Senate favor a bill that would extend government funding at current spending levels into December.

Congress has never before implemented such a comprehensive “tiered” funding bill. The closest analogue is a 1991 CR that extended federal funding by about 45 days but gave a single component—a provision to fund the State Department and foreign operations—a slightly longer period to accommodate ongoing negotiations between then-President George H. W. Bush and to accommodate then-President George H. W. Bush to Congress on economic development assistance to Israel.