'I'll vote no': GOP lawmaker takes shot at Mike Johnson in new Party rebellion

As Congress nears a Sept. 30 deadline to pass a stopgap funding measure and avoid a government shutdown, one GOP lawmaker is already signaling defiance of House leadership.

That lawmaker is Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who has often clashed with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and President Donald Trump – not only over spending, but also over his push to unseal documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, which both Johnson and Trump have sought to block.

“Congress will likely pass a continuing resolution by Sept. 30, but what is a continuing resolution?” Massie wrote on X early Friday morning.

“A continuing resolution is a copy of last year’s omnibus spending bill. But since Congress passed a continuing resolution last year (FY25), this year’s continuing resolution (FY26) is a copy of the omnibus (FY24) of (former President Joe) Biden’s last year. I’ll vote no.”

Continuing resolutions have become far more frequent in recent years as partisan divides among lawmakers have deepened, making it harder for Congress to agree to regular appropriations bills that are needed to fund the government each year. Massie, among the more fiscally conservative members of Congress, has often clashed with GOP leadership over spending, which, despite the rhetoric of Republican leadership, has continued to climb every year.

Massie’s fight with Republican leadership over spending came to a head over Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is projected to increase the federal deficit by around $3.4 trillion over ten years, per the Congressional Budget Office. Massie was among the two House Republicans that voted no on the measure, drawing scorn from the White House.

“There’s a conservative school of thought that says if we would just keep passing continuing resolutions, we’d spend the same dollars each year, so government spending would effectively go down due to inflation,” Massie continued. “The problem with that theory is (that) Congress inserted FY26 spending increases in the OBBBA.”

Massie went on to draw a line in the sand on what he’d find acceptable, detailing a proposal he made under the Biden administration that would have seen spending cut by 1%, should Congress continue to pass continuing resolutions. That proposal, he said, was “killed” by Johnson, setting the stage for what will likely be a heated battle between House Republicans ahead of the looming Sept. 30 deadline.

“It’s been falsely stated I voted for a Republican continuing resolution that passed during Biden’s administration,” Massie wrote. “Wrong. I voted for a deal, coupled with a debt ceiling increase, that said if we keep doing continuing resolutions, then the next continuing resolution cuts all spending 1% (the Massie plan). Johnson killed that deal.”