GOP rebels admit defeat in short-term spending fight as Johnson sticks by bipartisan deal

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Republican hardliners are reluctantly accepting defeat in the current fight over short-term government funding.

House and Senate leaders are working to pass a stopgap funding extension – known as a continuing resolution (CR) – aimed at keeping the government from a partial shutdown. Current federal funding expires in two tranches, on Jan. 19 and Feb. 2.

The issue of federal spending has driven a wedge between different House GOP factions, with conservatives staging several protest votes and even booting former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., from leadership for passing a CR to avoid a shutdown late last year.

But several of those same GOP rebels are backing away from the idea of repeating the move with Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

HOUSE, SENATE RELEASE BIPARTISAN AGREEMENT ON GOVERNMENT FUNDING AS SHUTDOWN DEADLINES LOOM

"The only people I hear talking about that are you guys," House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good, R-Va., told reporters on Wednesday morning when asked about filing a motion to vacate against Johnson.

Good was one of the eight House Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy in October.

Now, however, he and other Freedom Caucus members signaled there’s little they could do to stop the bill from passing if House leaders put it forward under suspension of the rules, meaning it will skip a procedural step in exchange for needing two-thirds of the