Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) announced his intent to vote for a bipartisan budget deal in a statement on Sunday.
The budget agreement was reached by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and approved by the House in a bipartisan vote last Thursday. Though the deal faces staunch opposition by Republicans in the Senate, Johnson has conceded his support.
"The budget deal struck by Paul Ryan and Patty Murray is no 'grand bargain,' but I credit Paul with understanding that a grand bargain is not possible at this point in time," Johnson said in his statement. "Although I disagree with a number of provisions in the bill, on balance the good outweighs the bad. As long as the Senate does nothing to worsen the bill, I intend to support it.”
The endorsement comes only days after Johnson called the deal "more of a Patty Murray budget," saying it didn't provide solutions to long-term problems.
"The real problem is President Obama and Democrats in the Senate and House, they don't want to fix the long-term problems," Johnson said in an MSNBC interview last week. "That's the situation Paul was in, trying to negotiate something. I don't want to shut down the government. They do enough harm to our economy. We don't need to do shutdowns to increase the plan."
Earlier Sunday, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) expressed concern that the vote will lack the Republican votes it needs to pass the Senate.
"The struggle is still on in the United States Senate," he said in a CBS interview Sunday morning. "I feel we'll have a good strong showing from the Democratic side, but we need bipartisan support to pass it."
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