Press Releases

WASHINGTON — This afternoon, Speaker Johnson attended Punchbowl News’ Conference and sat for a fireside chat with reporter Jake Sherman. The interview covered a range of topics, including government funding, budget reconciliation, the DOGE effort, and House Republicans’ priorities for the 119th Congress.

Watch Speaker Johnson’s full interview here

On budget reconciliation and making the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent:

I've put this on a very aggressive timetable, and the reason for that - there's multi reasons for it — but we want to get this at the president's desk for a signature by the end of April or early May, because it's very important the markets, [they] need stability right now. The people need to know that the tax cuts are going to be extended. If you're a small business owner trying to make a big decision about growth or purchasing a property or expanding jobs, it'll be very helpful to you to know what your tax rate is going to be for the next few years. So, the sooner we get that done, the more certainty we have in the markets, I think it helps in every respect. And I think people will see that and recognize what we're trying to do. And they'll get relief sooner.

On the DOGE effort:

There's a three-step process. The way I summarize it is, we have to qualify, and then quantify, and then codify what is happening. So, the qualification part, we're in the first stages of that. He's turning over the data. He's posting it online on the DOGE website. And then we have groups like the Office of Management and Budget in the White House, the Treasury Department, the agencies that are the arms of the federal government that are responsible for affecting these cuts. They're putting all that together. They'll score it and they'll send it to us. And then that will become a part of FY26 and the appropriations process. So it's going to be a very different appropriation cycle and budgeting cycle than we've had in a long, long time. And it's long overdue.

On priorities for House Republicans in the 119th Congress:

We’ve got to get right to FY26 budgeting. And we've been having a lot of discussion about that today. I believe we're going to be able to restore regular order. No one going to know what that looks like anymore because the 1974 Budget Control Act has been dismissed and disregarded by Congress for decades. What's supposed to happen is the White House is supposed to send over a budget and then in sequence, Congress reacts to that budget. Sometimes we'll do our own, Congress maybe does its own, and then it gets to the 12 appropriations bills in consequential order. We should do that. I think we can do that. We're going to be a little behind the eight ball because we're going to start late. But our objective is to never be in a CR position again, not in September of this year. We want to get the appropriations bills done on our side and send it to the Senate. And I'm very optimistic we can do that. 

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