Republican leaders in the House of Representatives held a procedural vote on a short-term funding proposal that bitterly divided the Republican conference and sparked opposition from hard-line conservatives.
The House was scheduled to vote at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday on the rule allowing the GOP’s continuing resolution (CR) proposal to move forward, but an update sent shortly before noon did not list the procedural vote.
The Democratic Whip’s office confirmed that The House GOP Leadership had changed the session schedule. The office’s updated schedule did not include voting on the rules.
The House could hold the procedural vote later today, but the postponement marks a setback for Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and GOP leaders, who had hoped the conference would rally around the tentative proposal to increase their influence in future negotiations with the Senate and the White House.
Asked Tuesday about the possibility of withdrawing the rule, McCarthy told reporters: “I’m just looking around it; we have people talking together.
Pressed to present the rule, he replied: “It’s coming.” »
The turmoil over the partisan CR proposal leaves House Republicans in a difficult situation whose members largely agree there is no clear path forward without further stoking Republican tensions — and potentially threatening McCarthy’s leadership.
The legislation, developed by leaders of the Main Street Caucus and the House Freedom Caucus, would avert a government shutdown by extending government funding through Oct. 31 as well as cutting all discretionary spending outside of government by 8 percent. Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, plus the bulk of the House GOP’s HR 2 border enforcement bill that they passed earlier this year.
But more than a dozen GOP members — more than enough to defeat the plan in the GOP’s slim majority — quickly said they would oppose the legislation, many of them emphasizing their long-standing demands. date of a decline in overall spending levels.
As leaders delayed the procedural vote, many members gathered in the office of House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.).
In it, Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Oklahoma) – chairman of the Republican Study Committee, the largest conservative caucus in the House – laid out a possible alternative plan for the partisan stopgap bill. This plan would reduce spending to fiscal 2022 levels, as outlined in the House GOP’s “Limit, Save, Raise” debt limit bill passed earlier this year, and increase funding for the border security.
Some members, including Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), made a similar proposal to members during a closed-door conference Tuesday morning. He said the border provisions and pledge to cut spending in the appropriations bills would receive enough GOP support to clear the chamber.
“I think you could get 218 in the conference,” Good said.
It remains unclear whether drafting the interim bill at FY 2022 levels would garner enough support within the conference. But House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry (R-Pa.), who helped craft the continuing resolution, said he was “of course” open to making changes to the legislation.
The procedural vote was clearly in jeopardy as members left the full GOP conference meeting Tuesday morning. Lawmakers said they saw no signs that the resisters were changing their positions.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a member of the Freedom Caucus, said he planned to vote against the procedural rule to allow consideration of the CR — and predicted that enough people would join him to make fail the procedural vote.
The conservative lawmaker said he appreciated keeping the resolution — and “liked” the 8% cuts it calls for — but would oppose the rule requiring leaders to provide supporters with The hard-line overall numbers for the 12 appropriations bills. The Conservatives have been demanding these figures for months.
“I just want to see the total,” Norman told reporters. “A pie has a lot of different ingredients. I want to see all the ingredients that leaders will commit to putting in this cake.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), who also helped craft the CR proposal, expressed frustration with opposition to the CR.
“I find it extremely difficult to explain or defend opposition to an 8% cut over 30 days in exchange for the most conservative and strictest border security measure we have ever adopted by this body,” said Roy. “I think it’s inexplicable. I think it’s professional misconduct. And I think there are outside groups that are trying to make progress that are part of this and pushing this narrative, that it’s sort of malpractice to do that.
Perry urged his colleagues to support the bill even if they “don’t like it,” acknowledging that anything the Senate might send them would be less conservative.
“It’s a proposal, I’m speaking for myself, that doesn’t mean I like it but I’m working with my colleagues to find one of two possible paths,” Perry told reporters. “The only way is where we offer something and the American people can see what we stand for. The other path is, in all honesty, to accept whatever the Senate sends us, which is probably 100% worse than whatever we stand for.
“So let’s choose the option that suits us best even if we don’t necessarily like it and we want to hear all the voices and make it as perfect as possible, knowing that we represent millions of people across the country and that “There will be some differences of opinion,” he added. “So you won’t get everything you want. But if you don’t do something, you won’t get anything.”
Updated at 12:49 p.m.
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