Speaker Mike Johnson’s efforts to pass a short-term spending bill before Friday’s shutdown deadline should’ve been fairly straightforward. Instead, it has turned into yet another test of his ability to steer a chaotic conference as he embraces an ambitious agenda next year.

Johnson and his team are working to minimize GOP defections while keeping enough Democratic support, since he can’t pass the funding extension with only Republican votes. But a demand for farm aid from Republicans in agriculture-heavy districts is complicating the negotiations, prompting Democrats to ask for additional concessions and fueling conservative ire over increased spending.

Those hardliners likely wouldn’t vote for a stopgap spending bill regardless, but if they’re angry enough it could cause problems for Johnson on Jan. 3, when he will need nearly unanimous GOP support in order to maintain the speakership.

Johnson already tried to appease ultraconservatives, but the move inflamed the farm-district Republicans; he shot down their ask last Tuesday to fund the economic aid via conservation money in Democrats’ partisan Inflation Reduction Act. Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell held firm on that position in the Friday night talks. That triggered those GOP lawmakers to........

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