But his pitch to aggressively pursue spending cuts and to decouple Israel and Ukraine aid have already divided the party across both chambers in ways that could make it difficult — if not impossible — to address critical issues like defending democracies abroad and keeping the federal government open.

The speaker's opening moves have set him on a collision course with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), as both Republican leaders simultaneously struggle to manage their own fractious conferences. An ideological conservative who has staunchly sided with former president Donald Trump after both were elected to national office in 2016, Johnson's brand of conservatism largely aligns with the right-most wing budding in the Senate Republican conference that McConnell has often clashed with.

McConnell — an 81-year-old Republican of a different political generation than Johnson, 51, with a reputation for fiercely pursuing party goals — has in recent years broken with orthodoxy and sided with President Biden and the Senate Democratic majority on key domestic and international priorities. McConnell and much of his conference hope to pass bipartisan bills to fund the government and send aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan to defend their democracies.

But Johnson and his conference passed a $14.3 billion aid package for Israel this week that lacked Ukraine funding, attaching a partisan measure beloved by many in his conference that would rescind thousands of new IRS employees provided for in Biden's signature legislative achievement.

The new speaker suggested that if the Senate sends back an Israel aid bill that does not include spending cuts, he won't put it on the floor.

"We have obligations and we have commitments and we want to protect and help and assist our friend Israel," Johnson told reporters. "But we have to keep our own house in order as well."