Days from government shutdown, Speaker Johnson may need short-term spending bill he previously opposed

• Senate Republicans are growing doubtful that a government shutdown can be avoided without a short-term spending bill, which House Speaker Mike Johnson has previously rebuffed.
• Congress has until Jan. 19 to settle on four appropriation measures to keep the government open.
• Johnson is balancing that looming government shutdown with demands of hardline House Republicans who ousted his predecessor in part for conceding to Democrats in budget negotiations.

Senate Republicans repeatedly said this week that a short-term spending bill may be necessary to keep the government open, a harsh reality for House Speaker Mike Johnson, who is balancing a looming shutdown deadline with the demands of hardline Republicans.

The last temporary spending bill Congress passed, in November, established a laddered schedule of funding deadlines, the first on Jan. 19 and the other on Feb. 2. On Sunday, members of Congress reached an agreement on a topline spending bill, but still have to negotiate four separate appropriations bills by Jan. 19 to keep the government open.

As the first deadline approaches, members have expressed growing doubt on whether a shutdown can be avoided without another continuing resolution, or CR.

"Time is so compressed and the deadline so short that I'm afraid we're looking at another short-term continuing resolution," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, in an interview Wednesday on CNBC's "Squawk Box."

Cornyn echoes Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who both said this week that a stopgap funding measure is looking increasingly inevitable.

Meanwhile, eyes are on Johnson to follow through on the hardline Republican demands he was elected to champion. If not, he could meet the same fate