Mike Johnson faces brutal June as deadlines come due
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Speaker Johnson at the Capitol on May 20. Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is staring down a brutal stretch of deadlines and uncomfortable votes when the House returns from recess next week.
Why it matters: Johnson bought himself time this spring by punting a series of politically difficult fights. But those deadlines are now coming due, setting up a brutal June for House Republicans.
- Johnson will have to navigate expiring surveillance authorities, a growing push for another reconciliation package, and several politically difficult floor votes.
Driving the news: Congress left town last week without approving funding for ICE and Border Patrol by President Trump's self-imposed June 1 deadline.
- House conservatives are frustrated with their GOP counterparts across the Capitol and are expected to renew demands for action when lawmakers return.
- Senators remain deadlocked over the path forward after a revolt over Trump's $1.8 billion weaponization fund.
GOP leaders scrapped a vote on a war powers resolution to rein in Trump's military operations in Iran just before the House left town after concluding they didn't have the votes to defeat it.
- The war powers vote will happen next week and is expected to pass with a handful of GOP defections, which would mark Congress' first successful rebuke of Trump's Iran war effort.
- Leaders are also bracing for another successful discharge petition vote, as a package of Russia sanctions and billions of dollars in Ukraine aid is expected to pass.
Johnson faces a thorny path on a three-year extension of FISA, which is set to lapse on June 12.
- Congress has punted the issue twice.
- Conservatives want warrant requirements attached to the surveillance program, while the White House and GOP leadership are pushing for a clean extension.
There are also members who want to take another crack at reconciliation to refocus on affordability before the midterms.
- Johnson has repeatedly dangled the prospect of a third reconciliation bill to cut deals with his members.
- But lawmakers are running short on in-session days before the August recess, which many members view as the practical deadline.
The intrigue: Johnson is also losing one of his closest advisers.
- Longtime chief of staff Hayden Hayes is departing the speaker's office, Punchbowl News first reported Friday.
- Hayes was a key adviser throughout Johnson's rise to the speakership.
