Back home in Louisiana, Speaker Mike Johnson talks budget, border, Ukraine, Israel

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson returned to Louisiana for a one-day flurry of events Friday, but his mind was racing back to Washington, where Congress returns Wednesday facing a deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown and growing urgency to fund allies Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine in their defense efforts.

And Johnson is seeking those solutions while walking a tightrope within his own fractured Republican caucus that fired its previous speaker for the first time in history.

USA Today Network interviewed Johnson on one of his stops in a remote forest near Mansfield in northwestern Louisiana where he met with officials and employees of Chesapeake Energy on the site of a natural gas drilling rig.

Johnson said he believes there is a path to passing a budget by the March 1 deadline without another temporary spending measure, called a continuing resolution, that was passed late last year to reach this point.

"I think we'll be able to avoid another CR," Johnson said. "Negotiations are ongoing in earnest around the clock. When you operate by CR it's not a good way to run a railroad."

When asked if he is confident a deal can be reached before a temporary shutdown, he said, "We hope to to avoid it."

Johnson said a decision will be made within days on how to address funding for Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine.

The House and Senate have been unable to agree on a strategy to pass funding for its allies even as Ukraine is losing ground in its effort to turn back Russia's invasion.

Senators have sent the House an instrument that would provide funding to all three countries in one bill.

Johnson has previously been unwilling to present a bill that funds America's allies without addressing security at the U.S. southern border with Mexico.

"We've insisted that our national border must be addressed first," he said.

But on Friday he didn't dismiss the Senate bill as dead on arrival.

"Whether we address them separately or add a border piece to it is a decision that will be made in the next 48 hours or so," Johnson said.

Johnson also used his tour of the natural gas drilling site as a platform to again blast Democratic President Joe Biden's January order to pause permits for new liquefied natural gas terminal projects.

"It's terrible public policy and we'll continue fighting the president on that," he said. "We've got to unleash American energy."

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This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Can Speaker Mike Johnson reach deals on budget, border, Ukraine, Israel?