Johnson holds firm on shutdown strategy as House GOP grows nervous

House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Los Angeles, appears to be sticking to his strategy of pressuring Senate Democrats to agree to end the war. Government shutdownHe noted in public and private comments Thursday.

But even as he and Senate Majority Leader John Thune proceed with their plans, some House GOP lawmakers are concerned about the potential fallout.

House Republicans held a private call Thursday where Johnson updated them on the current situation. While GOP lawmakers were largely united behind their leader, Fox News Digital was told, several of them expressed concerns about the optics coming out of the House and Senate as the shutdown prepares to enter its 10th day.

Johnson had previously canceled votes in the House of Representatives this week to keep national attention on Democrats’ resistance to the GOP’s plan to fund the government.

Senate GOP resists ‘nuclear option’ as standoff deepens as Democrats shut down

As lawmakers debate extending government funding, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Los Angeles, awaits the arrival of the leader of the Orthodox Christian Church, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, at the Capitol in Washington, on September 17, 2025. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)

The Speaker of the House told House Republicans he would give them 48 hours notice before calling the next vote in the House, but did not say when that would happen, Fox News Digital was told — after publicly stating several times that their return would depend on Senate Democrats.

“As soon as possible,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Wednesday [Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.] “Decide to stop playing games, we’ll bring everyone back here and go straight back to the regular session.”

But at least three House Republicans support the chamber’s return next week whether the shutdown is resolved or not, including two on a call Thursday.

Reps. Jay Obernault, R-Calif., and Julie Fedorchak, R-N.D., have spoken in favor of returning next week, sources told Fox News Digital.

Senate Democrats are defying White House warnings, once again blocking a GOP attempt to reopen the government

Obernault told Johnson that the House had more work to do beyond spending bills, adding: “None of that gets done,” he was told on Fox News Digital.

“I think we’re going to get to a point where it’s detrimental to continue to keep the House out of session. I think we’re getting to that point,” Obernault told Fox News Digital.

Fedorchak said she believed House Republicans would be in a better strategic position if they were in D.C., the sources said.

But sources said that Johnson repeated his 48-hour pledge and said that the recess next week is not a “final decision,” but he indicated that most Republicans in the House of Representatives believe that this is the right decision.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., brief reporters after their face-to-face meeting with President Donald Trump and Republican leaders, at the Capitol in Washington, Sept. 29, 2025. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)

Meanwhile, Rep. Kevin Kelly, R-Calif., made his concerns public on Wednesday, writing on

On Thursday’s call, Johnson also indicated he would do so No independent vote was held The sources said that the salaries of the military personnel would be kept during the closure period.

The spokesman said it was a campaign led by Democrats seeking political cover despite the rejection of the GOP funding plan — which would keep the military and the entire government’s payrolls open until at least Nov. 21.

Right now, active duty members are considered “essential” and must continue to work, but they could lose their next paycheck on Oct. 15 if the shutdown continues.

Sources told Fox News Digital that Johnson said: “The entire government must reopen at once.”

But this was also met with some concern by lawmakers in the House.

Rep. Gene Keegans, R-Va., who is leading a bill to ensure troops are paid during the shutdown, wrote on Wednesday

Meanwhile, two other House Republicans — Reps. John Rutherford, R-Fla., and Tom Barrett, R-Mich. — spoke during lawmakers’ call Thursday with concerns about the Senate GOP’s lack of movement to completely bypass Democrats to reopen the government.

Under current Senate rules, most legislation needs to meet a 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster and allow debate.

But there have been several exceptions in the modern era, raised by the Senate Majority Leader, where rules have been changed to lower the threshold to 51 votes for certain issues. Senate Republicans used it as recently as earlier this year to overcome a blockade by Democrats of President Donald Trump’s nominees.

However, federal funding legislation still requires 60 votes, something Rutherford and Barrett said the Senate should consider changing.

Specifically, Rutherford warned that he was concerned it would expose Republicans to “bad messaging” if the Senate did not use the so-called “nuclear option” to ensure the military was paid on time when it has been used recently for presidential candidates.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks to reporters outside the West Wing of the White House, Sept. 29, 2025, in Washington, as House Speaker Mike Johnson listens from Los Angeles. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo)

Johnson as a leader House of RepresentativesHe has no say in what the Senate does. But he addressed a similar inquiry during a question-and-answer session with Americans on C-SPAN Thursday morning.

“The filibuster is a tradition that people on both sides of the aisle hold dear, and the reason is because if you blow that up, and turn it into something like CR, their argument is you’re going to open Pandora’s box,” Johnson said.

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“What if the Socialists take control of the Senate, and the Social Democrats are in charge, and they want to form a government to take control of the means of production, and they don’t have any guarantees there, and they can do it with a minimum majority next time?”

The government shutdown is set to enter its 10th day on Friday after Senate Democrats rejected the GOP funding plan for the seventh time.

Republicans are pushing a short-term extension of fiscal year 2025 funding levels, called a continuing resolution (CR), to give lawmakers more time to reach agreement on fiscal year 2026 spending levels.

But Democrats, angry at being sidelined in the debates, are demanding serious concessions on health care provisions in exchange for their support for the spending deal.