The former New York governor will be grilled by a House panel over his pandemic response — just as he mulls a potential return to politics.

Mike Johnson’s spending plan is already in trouble. It was doomed in the Senate from the start, but now there are fresh doubts that he can even get it through the House.

The speaker announced last week that he planned to link a government funding bill to legislation that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. The package would keep spending levels mostly steady, punting a government shutdown deadline currently set to hit on Oct. 1 to March 28.

Johnson wants to hold a House vote Wednesday on that bill, hoping to give conservatives a symbolic preelection win even if Senate Democrats tank it after. But the GOP leader is facing two pockets of intraparty resistance.

First, there are conservatives who oppose short-term spending bills on principle and are unconvinced by the citizenship add on. Plus, some defense-hawks are worried the six-month stopgap bill would have a negative impact on the Pentagon, after defense officials said as much over the weekend.

Johnson can afford to lose four Republicans, assuming full House attendance, before he’ll need Democratic help to clear the stopgap bill, known as a continuing resolution or a CR. So far, he’s got at least six GOP “no” votes.

Reps. Tim Burchett (Tenn.), Jim Banks (Ind.) Mike Rogers (Ala.) and Cory Mills (Fla.) told reporters on Monday that they currently oppose the plan — joining Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), who had already announced their opposition.

“I’ve never supported a CR,” Mills said, adding that there are “quite a few” Republicans who are opposed to Johnson’s plan.

More Republicans could join their ranks, according to interviews with more than a dozen GOP lawmakers. Several said on Monday that they are still on the fence. That includes Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), Keith Self (R-Texas), Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.), and Majorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

Other Republicans who are undecided, such as Reps. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas) and Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), indicated they don’t want to support a CR but that they like the non-citizen voting bill attached to it.

Johnson could get a tiny bit more wiggle room if Democrats have absences. But he’ll likely have some convincing to do if he hopes to pass the bill through the House, which many Republicans saw as an opening offer to the Senate. If it can’t even clear the lower chamber, Democrats will feel even more emboldened to push through their plan, a more straightforward CR that kicks a shutdown deadline into mid-December — setting up another year-end spending fight.

A broad swath of Republicans acknowledge that Congress will ultimately need to pass a clean short-term bill in order to avoid a shutdown starting on Oct. 1. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats have vowed they won’t support the House GOP plan. President Joe Biden has also threatened to veto it, should it somehow reach his desk.

Some Republicans are opening the door to a clean spending extension, one without the non-citizen voting bill, that goes until March. But even some GOP lawmakers admit it’s unlikely that they will be able to get Democrats to agree to that.

Johnson met with his leadership team Monday, where he sidestepped questions about his ultimate endgame. He mainly said that his goal was to bring this vote to the floor, two people familiar with the meeting told POLITICO, granted anonymity to reveal private discussions.

“We did not discuss any contingency plans,” Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) told reporters as she left the leadership meeting.

And though a handful of Democrats previously supported the non-citizen voting bill, they are under fierce pressure to oppose it now that it’s attached to the CR. Democrats are also shooting down the idea of even a clean CR into March.

“My view is that we ought to go to mid-December. We should not carry this over until next year,” said Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top House Democratic appropriator.

Daniella Diaz contributed to this report.

Speaker Mike Johnson's stopgap spending plan is slated to clear its first test Monday, but its fate on the House floor is still far from certain.

The chamber's Rules Committee kicked off a meeting Monday afternoon to prepare to send the funding bill to the House floor, likely on Wednesday. The legislation would punt a government shutdown deadline, currently scheduled to hit on Oct. 1, into the end of March, and includes a conservative-favored bill that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote.

Johnson’s six-month funding punt, known as a continuing resolution or a CR, represents House Republicans’ opening offer in the sprint to avoid a government shutdown, one the Democratic-controlled Senate will surely reject. Right now, it’s unclear if it can even pass the House, since Democratic support will be scarce and the number of GOP holdouts is uncertain.

“I think you’re going to see a CR out of here this week,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) said as he walked into the Rules Committee meeting. Biggs declined to say if he would vote for the bill, however, instead winking and saying he planned to offer amendments.

At least one conservative on the Rules Committee, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), said he will oppose the measure this week. During the Rules meeting, Massie lamented the "political theater" that he said will likely result in a massive year-end government funding deal that will do nothing to cut spending. Democrats have pushed for a more straightforward CR that extends the government shutdown deadline into mid-December, without policy bills attached.

"Why are we funding things we don't like? We don't have to," he said. "It's because we're addicted to spending. And this doesn't do anything about the addiction, at all."

Massie also predicted that Republicans will ultimately "cave" and drop the proof-of-citizenship bill, known as the SAVE Act, which Democrats broadly oppose attaching to a stopgap.

A number of Republicans, including top appropriators, have warned that a lengthy stopgap into early next year won’t yield GOP leaders more leverage in government funding negotiations, even if the party controls both chambers and the White House. Conservatives have argued for kicking the deadline into March so a potential President Donald Trump could influence negotiations. But neither party is expected to hold a Senate supermajority next year, meaning any final spending deal will still need bipartisan backing to get through the upper chamber in 2025.

In a veto threat issued on Monday, the White House is also warning that a six-month funding patch will prove detrimental to the military, hurting GOP priorities like military readiness goals and efforts to deter China. Johnson's stopgap would fund the government through March 28.

“It’s madness,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democratic appropriator in the House. She also lamented a lack of money to address a looming veterans’ health funding cliff, among other issues.

Johnson’s end date of March 28 is also dangerously close to an April 30 deadline that would trigger across-the-board spending cuts if Congress fails to fund the government in full and on time, a consequence of last summer’s debt limit deal. And a March shutdown cliff could coincide with several other major issues on Congress’ agenda next year, including another debt ceiling deadline and the expiration of Trump-era tax cuts.

Instead, leading appropriators, including Republicans like House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.), are pushing to wrap up fiscal 2024 funding by the end of the calendar year, clearing the decks for the next Congress in January.