US House Speaker Johnson Says he Has Votes to End Partial Shutdown by Tuesday

House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Sunday he believes he has the Republican votes to end a partial government shutdown by at least Tuesday, in an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"I'm confident that we'll do it at least by Tuesday. We have a logistical challenge of getting everyone in town," he said, as transport problems persist following a snowstorm that affected travel in the southeastern U.S. The U.S. entered what is expected to be a brief shutdown on Saturday after Congress failed to approve a deal to keep a wide swath of operations funded. The Senate easily passed a spending passage on Saturday but the House of Representatives is out of town.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers have been working to ensure a debate over immigration enforcement does not disrupt other government operations. That is a contrast from last autumn, when both parties dug into their positions in a dispute over healthcare, prompting a shutdown that lasted a record 43 days and cost the U.S. economy an estimated $11 billion.

The deal approved by the Senate would separate the Department of Homeland Security from the broader spending package, allowing lawmakers to approve funding for agencies such as the Pentagon and the Department of Labor while new restrictions are considered on federal immigration agents amid uproar over the shootings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.

Johnson said "our intention" is by Tuesday to fund all agencies except for DHS, "and then we will have two weeks of good faith negotiation to figure it out."