Speaker Johnson is putting his job at risk by striking a deal with Senator Schumer and House Democrats to keep the government open past the partial shutdown deadline this coming Friday. His pitch for a short-term funding extension until March has enraged some conservatives, who are threatening to remove him from office after he promised in November that he would not kick the can down the road on the budget.

“The House GOP is planning to pass a short-term spending bill continuing Pelosi levels with Biden policies, to buy time to pass longer-term spending bills at Pelosi levels with Biden policies,” the House Freedom Caucus wrote on X on Sunday night, referring to a former House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and President Biden. “This is what surrender looks like.”

On January 7, Mr. Johnson announced to his Republican colleagues that he and Mr. Schumer had reached a handshake agreement for a topline budget number of $1.59 trillion, though when one includes the nearly $70 billion in “side deals” — as conservatives call them — with senior appropriators, the total comes closer to $1.67 trillion for the fiscal year. 

It’s the same number agreed to by both Speaker McCarthy and the White House during the debt ceiling negotiations in May 2023. “That includes $886 billion for defense and $704 billion for nondefense,” Mr. Johnson wrote in a letter to his colleagues.

The budget framework was born of the conservative-maligned Fiscal Responsibility Act, which raised the debt ceiling until 2025 and provided for certain budget cuts, including to the Internal Revenue Service and some Covid-era emergency funding. Mr. Johnson, who voted for the Fiscal Responsibility Act in June 2023, boasted in his letter that the budget framework represents “real savings” and “real reductions” — not “budget gimmicks.”

Conservatives don’t see it that way. On Wednesday, the Freedom Caucus and its ideological allies voted to paralyze the House by killing a procedural rule to protest the budget agreement. 

The chairman of the Freedom Caucus, Congressman Bob Good, told reporters after that spectacle that Mr. Johnson was not living up to his record of being a fiscal conservative. “The deal, as has been announced, that doesn’t secure the border, that doesn’t cut our spending … is unacceptable,” he said. 

“We are the Republican majority,” he said. “That’s got to count for something. We can increase spending with a Democrat majority — we don’t need a Republican majority to do that.”

On a Sunday night conference call, Mr. Johnson announced that he would introduce a short-term funding deal known as a continuing resolution to keep some government agencies funded through March 1 and the rest of the government open through March 8, once again angering conservatives who point out that Mr. Johnson promised not to embrace another short-term agreement after passing a continuing resolution in November.

“Enough with the continuing resolutions,” Congressman Andy Biggs said on X on Sunday. “We’ve had plenty of time to address funding levels. Congress keeps punting this while our our southern border remains a mess and our national debt continues to surge.”

“For those keeping score at home … the House GOP has a choice this week,” Congressman Chip Roy said of the deal. “Will it do another extension of Nancy Pelosi’s spending levels and policies, including open borders … just to buy time to spend MORE?”

Mr. Roy, who did not revolt against Mr. McCarthy for the short-term deal he struck in September, tells the Sun that he may be willing to toss Mr. Johnson aside should he push this budget any further. He says he may be willing to introduce a motion to vacate the chair, which is almost certain to win the support of other conservatives who object to the budget framework. 

“I don’t know if I’ll do it or not,” he says. “My people at home across the spectrum expect me to actually try to fight for them. … It doesn’t matter who is in the chair. The [motion to vacate] is there for a reason. … It’s sitting there to be used if you feel like it needs to be used.”