House won’t work through weekend with shutdown deal elusive, defense bill beaten again
The House of Representatives was expected to be out of action for the next four days after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy‘s latest bid to move a defense spending bill — and break a Republican impasse over funding the government — went up in flames Thursday.
With both Houses of Congress expected to return Tuesday after breaking for the weekend and the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, they will have just five days to avoid a partial shutdown that many in Washington now see as inevitable.
McCarthy (R-Calif.) had expressed optimism Thursday morning that House Republicans were close to a breakthrough on a stopgap spending measure that would keep the government fully operational after Sept. 30. A day earlier, he had said he would plan to keep the House in session Friday and Saturday to allow work to continue.
But the speaker got a reality check after a vote to start debating a $886 billion defense appropriations measure failed 216-212 — the second time in three days the attempt had been stymied and the third time since McCarthy assumed the speakership in January that he had lost a rules vote.
Six Republicans — Andy Biggs of Arizona, Dan Bishop of North Carolina, Tom Cole of Oklahoma, Eli Crane of Arizona, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Matt Rosendale of Montana, joined with 210 Democrats to defeat the test vote.
Currently, McCarthy can only lose four GOP votes and still pass a bill with only Republican support.
“This is a whole new concept of individuals that just want to burn the whole place down. That doesn’t work,” McCarthy vented to reporters after the vote.
“This is painful. It gives me a headache. This is a very difficult series of missteps by our conference,” Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) told Politico. “If you can’t do [the defense bill], what can you do?”
The Republican rebels, led by McCarthy nemesis Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), want to see progress on separate appropriations bills before lending their vote to any stopgap measure — known as a CR in Washington parlance.
A compromise proposal unveiled by House Republicans late Sunday called for 8% spending cuts from current levels — except for the Pentagon, Veterans Affairs and disaster relief — in exchange for keeping the government open through Oct. 31. But the rebels have been unimpressed.
“We should be passing our appropriation bills right now,” Greene told Fox News. “We’ve wasted an entire week trying to buy four more weeks. That still isn’t enough time, and we’ll be right back in the same situation.”
“I just wish that they would take the same amount of energy and effort and put it towards developing the appropriation bills as they are developing this this faux CR,” added Rosendale.
“CRs are like Lay’s potato chips,” Gaetz said. “You never seem to be able to stop at just one. And this is like the gateway CR that they [House leadership] want to pass. They want to do a 30-day CR and then that will lead to another CR and then that will lead to an omnibus bill. That is the muscle memory of this town for the last seven years. I’m sick of it.”
The holdouts have also been emboldened by former President Donald Trump, who on Wednesday night demanded Republicans “defund all aspects of Crooked Joe Biden’s weaponized Government.”
“This is also the last chance to defund these political prosecutions against me and other Patriots,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “They failed on the debt limit, but they must not fail now. Use the power of the purse and defend the Country!”
House Democrats oppose the defense bill over provisions prohibiting Pentagon spending on training involving critical race theory, removing the Defense Department’s chief diversity officer position, and banning drag shows at military site, among other hot-button issues.
Republican dissidents cited provisions extending support for Ukraine as their reason to oppose the bill on the same day Kyiv President Volodymyr Zelensky pitched lawmakers on more backing.
“I just voted NO to the rule for the Defense bill because they refused to take the war money for Ukraine out and put it in a separate bill,” Greene posted on social media. “And 55% of Americans and 71% of Republican voters agree with me that we should stop funding a war in Ukraine.”
Prior to the defense bill vote, McCarthy’s team reportedly was eyeing a stopgap bill that would fund the entire government for $1.471 trillion and include a commission to slash spending, a proposal that would almost certainly have been a nonstarter for Senate Democrats.
Meanwhile, the Senate has yet to pass any of the 12 appropriations bills and is at odds with the House on top-line numbers.
On Wednesday, the upper chamber once again failed to advance a so-called “minibus” package of three spending bills to fund agriculture and military construction, transportation and housing, and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Back in May, debt ceiling negotiators agreed to cap spending at $1.59 trillion, but hardline Republicans have stewed over that concession for months.
They are seeking top-line levels closer to the $1.471 trillion mark, which was the base discretionary spending level for fiscal year 2022. It was also the GOP’s initial offering in the debt ceiling flap.
