GOP: The American Relief Act

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson spoke after the House of Representatives passed legislation — by a 366-34 margin — to avoid a government shutdown.

Johnson was Tuesday’s KVML “Newsmaker of the Day”. Here are his words:

“Good evening everybody – we are really grateful that tonight, in bipartisan fashion with an overwhelming majority of votes, we passed the American Relief Act of 2025.

It’s a very important piece of legislation. It funds the government, of course, until March of 2025. That was a big priority for us.

This is America First legislation, because it allows us to be set up to deliver for the American people.

In January, we will make a sea change in Washington. President Trump will return to D.C. and to the White House, and we will have Republican control of the Senate and the House. Things are going to be very different around here.

This is a necessary step to bridge the gap to put us in that moment where we can put our fingerprints on the final decisions on spending for 2025.

We also, in this bill as you know, took care of Americans who desperately needed and deserved the assistance. We had a record hurricane season. Hurricanes Helene and Milton in particular did dramatic damage across at least six states – the Carolinas, Virginia, Florida, Tennessee – all the way through.

And they have been waiting for the federal government to assist. We did that tonight in this bill.

We also took care of our farmers, many of whom are on the brink of collapse because of Bidenomics frankly.

The inflationary costs of their inputs and the inability they have right now to get loans from the banks and the lenders to put their crops in the ground, to put their seeds in the ground in the spring. We had to take care of that, and we did.

We are excited about this outcome tonight. We are grateful that everyone stood together and to do right thing. Having gotten this done now, as the last order of business for the year, we are set up for a big and important new start in January. We can’t wait to get to that point.

We encourage swift passage in the Senate now. They need to do their job, as the House just did, and we will all go home.

I want to wish everybody a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, happy holidays, and a happy new year, because I hope not to see you until we get back.

I was in constant contact with President Trump throughout this process, spoke with him most recently about 45 minutes ago. He knew exactly what we were doing and why, and this is a good outcome for the country. I think he certainly is happy about this outcome as well.

Elon Musk and I talked within about an hour ago and we talked about the extraordinary challenges of this job.

And I said, ‘hey, you want to be Speaker of the House?’ I don’t know. He said this may be the hardest job in the world. I think it is.

But we’re going to get through this. We are going to unify this country, and we are going to bring the America First agenda to the people beginning in January. We cannot wait to get started.”

The “Newsmaker of the Day” is heard every weekday morning at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 on AM 1450 and FM 102.7 KVML.