POLITICS

John Boehner Says There Won’t Be a Government Shutdown

By NICHOLAS FANDOS
Speaker John A. Boehner during a news conference at the Capitol on Friday. Zach Gibson/The New York Times 
WASHINGTON — Speaker John A. Boehner said Sunday that he expects the House of Representatives to pass the Senate’s government funding measure with Democratic support this week, averting a shutdown that has looked increasingly less likely since he announced on Friday that he would resign.
At the same time, and in an apparent move to placate conservatives who have tried to put Planned Parenthood at the center of the budget fight, he said the House will create a special committee to investigate the group.
Fighting back tears as he reflected on his speakership and the fight ahead in Congress, Mr. Boehner delivered a clear message to conservative colleagues credited with forcing his hand: Holding the government hostage to achieve untenable policy goals was reckless and harmful to the institution itself.
“We have got groups here in town, members of the House and Senate here in town, who whip people into a frenzy believing they can accomplish things that they know, they know are never going to happen,” Mr. Boehner said in a live interview broadcast on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
The speaker described these conservative members of his party as “false prophets,” who promise policy victories they cannot deliver. “The Bible says, beware of false prophets,” he said. “And there are people out there spreading noise about how much can get done.”
Asked if he thought his conservative colleagues had been unrealistic, Mr. Boehner offered a resolute “absolutely.” And asked if he saw anything of his younger “rabble-rouser” self in them, he said, “no.”
The interview was Mr. Boehner’s first since he stunned the Washington political establishment on Friday with his plan to resign from the speakership — and his House seat of almost a quarter century — at the end of October.
Reflecting on that decision, Mr. Boehner said he had intended to announce his resignation in November, but decided Thursday evening and early Friday morning that it was not worth putting his colleagues through a potential leadership fight brought on by his continued presence in the speaker’s chair.
“Why do I want to make my members, Republican members, walk the plank?” Mr. Boehner said. “Because they’re going to get criticized at home by some who think that we ought to be more aggressive.”
Given his decision, Mr. Boehner said he expects to find increased cooperation “from some around town to get as much done as possible” before he leaves office. He added that he intended not to leave his successor “a dirty barn.”
The funding measure now expected to pass before the close of the fiscal year this week will be the first test of that expectation. The Senate is scheduled to vote Monday on a procedural motion to advance a spending bill that would keep the government open, putting the measure’s fate in the House.
Mr. Boehner did not comment on the race to replace him as speaker or his heir apparent, Kevin McCarthy of California, but he did offer advice to whomever that replacement may be, saying that shepherding Congress requires an understanding that governance is an incremental process.
“Have the courage to do what you can do,” Mr. Boehner said. “It is easy to have the courage to do what you can’t do.”
“And our system of government, it’s not about Hail Mary passes,” he added, “It’s a slow, methodical process.”
As he did Friday, Mr. Boehner spoke emotionally and at length about Pope Francis, whom he welcomed to the Capitol for a rare joint meeting of Congress the day before he made his decision to resign. Though he said the Pope’s visit and the meaningfulness of the experience did not directly spur the decision to push his announcement forward, Mr. Boehner said it played a role.
“I think it helped clear the picture,” he said. “I never related one of these instances with the other. But, clearly, by Friday night, it was pretty obvious to me that, hey, I think it’s time to do this.”
The interview was originally scheduled to be taped in advance on Friday, but with the news of Mr. Boehner’s resignation, the network was able to reschedule for a live Sunday morning appearance.