McCarthy's 'final struggles' threaten to haunt Johnson's government shutdown fight

Roughly 11 months have passed since former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s historic ouster in October 2023. Now, his successor, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is navigating the same fraught political web on government funding that amounted to one of McCarthy's "final struggles" – but it is not yet clear that he will meet the same fate.

House Republicans are huddling for a conference-wide call on Wednesday, when Johnson is expected to roll out his plan for avoiding a government shutdown by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

The plan, endorsed by former President Donald Trump, would extend the current fiscal year’s government funding levels through March and would be paired with a GOP bill requiring proof of citizenship to be part of the voter registration process, multiple sources told Fox News Digital.

However, at least three House Republicans who spoke with Fox News Digital would not commit to voting for such a short-term bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR). Meanwhile, others questioned the wisdom of spending the few weeks in session before Election Day on a bill virtually certain to die in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

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Most conservatives and Trump allies in the House, however, have emphatically backed the plan.

"Certainly conservatives, spending hawks, frankly any Republican that doesn’t want to give Democrats or the kind of…uniparty the pen in December, so we want to kick spending into the new year," Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, explained to Fox News Digital. "Certainly kicking it to March gives us that benefit. And then we should have a robust fight over whether or not we should be very clear that only citizens are voting."

Five Democrats