Johnson and House Republicans introduced the streamlined legislation on Thursday, which then failed in a vote that evening. It’s not clear what they will do next.
Lawmakers are not expected to vote again on Thursday, meaning they’ll return on Friday morning with less than 24 hours on the clock until a potential shutdown.
But it’s clear the partisan blame game is in full swing. After the Thursday bill was shot down, Johnson told reporters it was “very disappointing” that almost every House Democrat had voted against it.
“It is, I think, really irresponsible for us to risk a shutdown over these issues on things that they have already agreed upon,” he said.
Johnson will likely need Democratic support, especially as divisions inside his own party over the bill became clear this week.
But Democrats are unlikely to help Johnson with support for a revamped funding bill, blaming him for breaking their bipartisan agreement.
“You break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow,” Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries posted on X, which is owned by Musk.
And others seemed to taunt Republicans for seeming to take their direction from the unelected Mr Musk.
On the House floor on Thursday, Connecticut Representative Rosa DeLauro – the top Democratic appropriator in the House – called the billionaire “President Musk”, to laughter from fellow Democrats.
“President Musk said ‘don’t do it, shut the government down,'” she said.
Still, Johnson needs to find a way to win over Democrats in order to pass a spending bill, especially when pent-up anger within his own caucus is set to boil over.
Time is also of the essence. These negotiations usually take weeks.