Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Mike Johnson (R-La.) advocated for the passage of an “America First” finance package to avoid a federal government shutdown in a March 11 event at Georgetown University.

Johnson, in a conversation with Reena Aggarwal, the director of the Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy and a professor of finance, further outlined the Republican Party’s economic agenda during President Donald Trump’s second term. In his examination of economic policies amid the passage of a finance package, Johnson said the continuing resolution (CR), a short-term federal funding extension, passed in the U.S. House of Representatives on March 11 will likely avoid a government shutdown.

Johnson said that though he felt the CR should have received bipartisan support in the face of a potential government shutdown, budget negotiations devolved into partisan politics.

“It was a clean CR continuing with last year’s fiscal year 2024 funding,” Johnson said at the event. “We didn’t make any major modifications to it at all, and I had hoped that everyone would vote for it, but my Democrat colleagues decided not to, save for one exception, and they’re doing that, I think, as a protest of what they dislike about the Trump administration and Elon Musk.”

“Tonight we did what became a partisan exercise, not by design,” he added. “It should not have been.”

The CR, which prevents a government shutdown, maintained existing funding levels for federal government operations, but increased defense funding by $7 billion, according to Johnson.  Though he indicated that little would change under the CR, the proposal includes language that will cut Washington, D.C.’s budget by $1.1 billion by requiring it to revert to its fiscal year 2024 budget.

Johnson said he looks toward passing a major finance package, dubbed “One Big Beautiful Bill” by Trump, through the reconciliation process, which allows Republicans to sidestep the Senate filibuster. 

“The reason why I call it ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ is we’re going to try to achieve all of the promises we made on the campaign trail, all of the ‘America First’ agenda we were elected to deliver, we’d like to try to do it in this process so that Chuck Schumer can’t stop us,” Johnson said.

Johnson said the package would include extensions to Trump-era tax cuts, reductions in regulatory requirements, increases in defense funding and prioritization of domestic energy production. 

The Psaros Center, which conducts nonpartisan financial policy research, organized the event aiming to expose students to thought leaders in financial policy. 

Aggarwal said the Psaros Center will continue to provide research and advice for financial policy leaders.

“We offer a unique value as an intellectual, honest broker, a facilitator, an educator for practitioners, policy makers and the broader community,” Aggarwal said at the event. “Our work is essential in ensuring clarity and objectivity.”

“Mr. Speaker, we at the Psaros Center are here to help you and your colleagues,” Aggarwal said.

Johnson said much of his role as Speaker includes working with other representatives to ensure their concerns are heard.

“I spend half my day as a mental health counselor,” Johnson said. “Honestly, I just sit down with everybody, work through their problems with them.” 

Michael Psaros, whose 2022 donation endowed $11 million to the Psaros Center, said Johnson’s character makes him an effective leader.

“I just want everyone to know I’ve had the great honor and privilege over the years, wearing many different hats, to meet so many of our country’s leading political figures,” Psaros said at the event. “I’m speaking very personally here — I have never met a leader in our country of greater faith, of greater character, of greater integrity than Speaker Johnson.”

Johnson said he looks up to former President Ronald Reagan as an example of a political leader with strong communicative and interpersonal skills.

“One time, they said he was like a silky, soft pillow with an iron bar on the inside,” Johnson said. “He knew where he stood. He knew who he was. He was very comfortable in his own skin because he was grounded in core principles that would never change, and could still appreciate and love everybody around him and appreciate their differences.”

Robert Groves, Georgetown’s interim president, said engaging with various perspectives is core to the university’s mission.

“At Georgetown, we listen as well as talk,” Groves said at the event. “Our mission as a university contains the sentence that we were created on the principle that serious and sustained discourse among people of different faiths, cultures and beliefs promotes intellectual, ethical and spiritual understanding. That’s what we do here.”

Johnson said, moving forward, he hopes to continue working toward collaboration within congressional Republicans during his tenure as speaker.

“I spend a lot of time working with all these folks and just run around all day and make sure everybody’s happy, and we’re at the same kind of endpoint,” Johnson said. “This is not a job you should ever aspire to, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, but I hope some of you will enter public service.”