NEW: Mike Johnson Reveals GOP’s Next Move In Shutdown Battle

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday said Republicans are mapping their next move as the Nov. 21 deadline approaches for the stopgap bill that passed the House last month and is stalled in the Senate.

“We’re very mindful of the calendar. We’re very frustrated by that,” Johnson told reporters, adding GOP leaders will meet soon to weigh options.

Republican leaders are privately considering another short-term patch into early 2026 — as POLITICO reported — as part of any deal to reopen the government.

Talks have intensified across both chambers, with GOP leaders now eyeing an expiration window between Jan. 21 and March for any new agreement.

In the Senate, negotiators are discussing a package that could pair funding bills with a new stopgap to reopen the government, along with a vote for Democrats on extending expiring health insurance subsidies. Even as those talks continue, Republican leaders say they won’t allow full-year spending bills to advance before there’s a reopening deal.

RELATED: Speaker Johnson Makes Shrewd Maneuver To Keep Shutdown Pressure On Schumer, Senate

Asked to weigh in on the president’s recent calls to end the filibuster, Johnson said he spoke with the president multiple times over the weekend. He said Trump is “very passionate about this,” while attributing the energy around the issue within the GOP to “the real desperation that we feel because we want the government to be open.”

“I understand desperate times call for desperate measures,” Johnson said. “I also understand that traditionally we’ve seen that as an important safeguard, I mean, I obviously shared my thoughts with the president on that.”

The Louisiana Republican said, “As much as I have wanted to blow up the filibuster sometimes as a House member, when we were not getting what we wanted done on our agenda, I hear my Senate Republican colleagues, some of the most conservative people in Congress, who say it’s an important safeguard.”

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Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture told a federal court on Monday that it will tap a contingency fund to allow states to issue partial November benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program during the shutdown.

In a declaration to the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, Patrick Penn, a USDA official who oversees SNAP, said the administration “intends to deplete SNAP contingency funds completely and provide reduced SNAP benefits for November 2025.”

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