The following is the transcript of the interview with House Speaker Mike Johnson that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Oct. 5, 2025.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to the government shutdown now in its fifth day. House. Speaker Mike Johnson joins us from Capitol Hill. Good morning to you, Speaker. Anyone up there to negotiate with?
SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON: There’s not, Margaret. Good morning. Good to hear your voice. It’s kind of quiet around here. It has been for the last several days, and it’s very unfortunate, because, as we’re talking real people are being adversely affected around the country in some and in very substantial ways. I pray that more Democrats in the Senate will come to their senses and do the right thing, and when they have the next opportunity on Monday to vote to open the government, I surely hope that they will.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, you did send your lawmakers home to their districts, which suggests we’ve got probably another week ahead of us of this shutdown. You mentioned the real world impact federal workers, including our military, would miss their first paychecks October 15th or 16th. How long should workers plan to be without that income?
SPEAKER JOHNSON: Well, the only person who can answer that question is your next guest and that’s Chuck Schumer, because the House did its job. The reason that House Republicans are home working in their districts, and I suspect House Democrats should be as well, is because we did that. We passed a bipartisan, very clean continuing resolution a couple of weeks back now, and sent it to the Senate. It’s very important to note what was in that. It was only 24 pages in length, Margaret. It was a good faith effort to keep the government open for seven more weeks so that Republicans and Democrats, in a bipartisan fashion, could work together to fund the government with the appropriations process. Chuck Schumer always voted for those in the past. In fact, he did it 13 times during the four years of the Biden administration, but now suddenly he’s commanding his Democrats in the Senate not to do it, and there’s one simple reason why. They need political cover from the far left corner of the base. He’s afraid, Chuck Schumer, individually- ask him about it. He’s afraid he’s going to get a challenge from the Marxist left in his party, because that’s the new wave in New York. That’s what this is about. Chuck Schumer is trying to show a fight against the President and Republicans and real Americans are being harmed in the process of this political game.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. Well, Democrats, as you know, want to have another conversation in regard to extending some tax subsidies that lower the cost of some health care that’s purchased through the Obamacare market. To that point, though, you’re talking about the politics of this, our CBS polling that we released today shows neither party’s stance is viewed as worth shutting down this government. The Democrats want to talk about the tax credits. You know, premium pricing is already being set now, even if this doesn’t expire until end of the year. Your fellow Republican, Jen Kiggans said, “raising costs for families with little notice and potentially stripping them of access to care is simply unacceptable.” Doesn’t she have a point here?
SPEAKER JOHNSON: There’s a lot of points to be made on that, and we’re ready to talk about, negotiate and do all of that, but they’re trying to create that as a red herring here right now. Margaret, this is a funding bootstrap measure, a very simple, very conventional thing that’s been done here all the time. This is the way it works now. We need a little more time on the clock to finish the appropriations process. We have plenty of time to debate that very complicated issue. It’s not a simple one. There has to be reforms to that subsidy, because there’s a lot of fraud, waste and abuse involved in it. There’s a- there’s 535 members of Congress in the House and Senate. There’s a- there’s probably 400 different ideas on how to fix that, so we need a little time to do it. We’re not saying that we won’t negotiate it. We’re saying turn the lights back on in Congress. Get troops paid TSA agents and border patrol agents paid who are trying to protect us. Restore the health care programs that are being stalled for veterans and Medicare recipients who are getting home health, it’s all stalled now, restore FEMA flood insurance programs in the middle of hurricane–
MARGARET BRENNAN: — Right. Turn the lights back on.–
SPEAKER JOHNSON: — and WIC programs for young women. We got to get this fixed now.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But just to clarify what you were just saying, do I hear you correctly? That you, as Speaker of the House, want to see the tax credit extended at a future date? Is that what you are saying?
SPEAKER JOHNSON: No, I haven’t staked out any position on it yet, because that’s not how this process works. We’re in a deliberative body–
MARGARET BRENNAN:– Right, I’m asking your position because you said–
SPEAKER JOHNSON:– I’m the speaker of the House–
MARGARET BRENNAN:– you’d be willing to talk about it–
SPEAKER JOHNSON:– I’m telling you my position- I’m the Speaker of the House. What I have to do is draw consensus among 435 members of my body. I don’t get out and project what the final conclusion is going to be. And I’ve told Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, most recently in the Oval Office with the President just five, six days ago, keep the government open so that we can do that job. We were always planning to do that. Again, that funding runs out December 31. The month of October is a critical time for us to get to this. But we can’t when Chuck Schumer keeps voting to shut the government down for political reasons. That’s purely and simply what’s happening here.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You believe you have time here, but our partner at health policy think tank KFF reported 80% of all premium tax credits went to ObamaCare enrollees in Trump won states. Red states. Do you really- do worry at all that this stance could backfire, that waiting to talk about the tax credit could hurt you and could hurt your voters?
SPEAKER JOHNSON: No- no. No, because we have time to do it again. The funding doesn’t run out until December 31st. We’re talking about a September 30th deadline that’s now passed to keep the government open so that Republicans and Democrats can have that very debate. Chuck Schumer has shut it off because he needs a political argument right now. 100% Margaret, that’s what this is about. Play the tape. Play the tape of Chuck Schumer saying consistently for the last 30 years that CRs are dangerous, destructive, and selfish. He is now the captain of it, and it’s on him. Republicans in the House, Senate, and the White House want to keep the government open, and we have voted to do so. Democrats are shutting it down–
MARGARET BRENNAN: But you are committing to have that conversation about health care is what I understand you saying?
SPEAKER JOHNSON: It was- it was always going to continue. They’re making this up. That is a red herring. They’re trying to- they’re trying to say that this fight right now is about that. That wasn’t even a fight. It’s a joke. Call him on it.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, the director of the Economic Council, Kevin Hassett, was on another network this morning, and said it is up to the President of the United States to decide when the mass layoffs will begin. He seems to be indicating the President is using those RIFs, those reduction-in-force threats, as leverage here. Do you know how quickly those layoffs will start?
SPEAKER JOHNSON: I don’t know. I anticipate it will have to be soon, because Chuck Schumer turned off the funding sources and whomever is the chair of the office–
MARGARET BRENNAN: — Do you want that as leverage?–
SPEAKER JOHNSON: — No, nor- neither does the President. No. The President wants the government open. He’s pleaded with Schumer and Hakeem in person in his office to do that, and they said no, because they want to do this. You know what they counter-proposed? They want to spend $1.5 trillion, and they want to return hard-working taxpayer dollars to fund health care for illegal aliens. It is in their bill. Go to speaker.gov and see it for yourself. Page 57, Section 2141. They’re using this for political games, and it is shameful, and real people are getting hurt.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, that- I have looked at that text, it doesn’t explicitly say what you are indicating–
SPEAKER JOHNSON:– Well, wait a minute–
MARGARET BRENNAN: — But unauthorized immigrants are intelligible for ACA benefits–
SPEAKER JOHNSON: — This is very important. Yes it does. It’s- it says very simply, they want to repeal the changes that we made in the- in the Working Families Tax Cut, the One Big Beautiful Bill.
MARGARET BRENNAN: –That’s right–
SPEAKER JOHNSON: — And what those changes were is it removed health care going to illegal aliens. It removed all the fraud, waste and abuse. And the Congressional Budget Office, CBO said it achieved the desired result. They project it will save almost $200 billion. Chuck Schumer’s proposal on page 57 wants to return that $200 billion of taxpayer funds to pay for illegal aliens and other non-citizens. That is a fact, and you can check it out on my website speaker.gov. Don’t trust me. Look at Chuck Schumer’s own paperwork.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, thank you for your time. This morning, we’ll be right back with a lot more ‘Face the Nation’. Stay with us.
