These 5 Arizona House members voted no on deal to avert government shutdown

Five Arizona Republican members of the House voted against a last-minute deal Saturday aimed at preventing a government shutdown, but the measure passed anyway.

The threat of shutdown was averted after the Senate passed the measure late Saturday.

Republican Reps. Andy Biggs, Eli Crane, Paul Gosar, Debbie Lesko and David Schweikert were among the 90 members of their party who opposed the continuing resolution, which aims to keep federal spending at current levels for another 45 days while cutting funding to Ukraine.

Arizona Democrats in the House, Reps. Ruben Gallego, Raul Grijalva and Greg Stanton, as well as freshman Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani, voted for the short-term deal.

Lesko took to social media to explain why she voted for a deal Friday that failed but voted against the deal Saturday that passed, putting her on the losing side of both votes.

"Securing our border and ensuring our military and Border Patrol agents are paid are my top priorities," Lesko said. "That’s why I voted for a stopgap funding measure that would have kept the government open, reined in spending, and secured our border. Today’s bill didn’t do those things, so I voted no."

But her explanation is a bit of misdirection because by voting "no" Saturday she threatened a shutdown that would force military and Border Patrol agents to keep working but possibly not be paid. The deal that passed Saturday did not include the ramped up Mexican border provisions that Friday's failed deal included.

Biggs and Crane didn't flip-flop, sticking with their opposition to any short-term deal.

During a Friday podcast, they discussed why they prefer to vote on spending items one by one, rather than through a continuing resolution. They said that forces members to defend frivolous spending items one by one rather than take one vote they can defend by saying they approved it to keep things running.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., dropped demands for steep spending cuts and relied on Democratic votes for passage to send the package to the Senate. Now he is almost certain to be facing a motion to try to take away the gavel from him, but it's not clear his critics have enough votes to topple the speaker. Most Republicans voted for the package Saturday while 90 opposed it.

“We’re going to do our job,” McCarthy said before the House vote. “We’re going to be adults in the room. And we’re going to keep government open.”

Biggs questioned after the vote whether McCarthy should keep his leadership position.

"Instead of siding with his own party today, Kevin McCarthy sided with 209 Democrats to push through a continuing resolution that maintains the Biden-Pelosi-Schumer spending levels and policies," Biggs said on social media. "He allowed the DC Uniparty to win again. Should he remain Speaker of the House?"

McCarthy addressed the criticism Saturday.

“If somebody wants to remove me because I want to be the adult in the room, go ahead and try,” McCarthy said of the threat to oust him. “But I think this country is too important.”

The spending measure later passed the Senate, with much less drama than in the House. The vote was 88-9, with Arizona's two senators voting yes and the only opposition coming from Republicans.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., said the vote was a relief.

“While I’m relieved to see Congress come together and avoid a government shutdown, legislating at the last minute to avoid harming servicemembers, small businesses, wildland firefighters, and our brave men and women at the border is the bare minimum," Sinema said Saturday in a written statement. "Both parties’ willingness to cater to the extremes instead of delivering lasting solutions is dangerous and harmful for Arizona families. Now it’s time for Congress to do its job, put partisanship aside, and pass a commonsense, responsible budget to help everyday Arizonans build better lives for themselves and their families.”

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said in a statement after the vote it was "ridiculous" that the matter came down to the wire, and blamed House Republicans and partisanship for the delay. He also lamented what was left out of the bill.

“I’m extremely disappointed that partisan dysfunction prevented Congress from extending U.S. support for Ukraine at such an important moment in their counteroffensive," Kelly said. "There is strong bipartisan support in both chambers to keep backing Ukraine and we must work urgently to get them the weapons and support they need to beat Putin.”

The White House was tracking the developments on Capitol Hill and aides were briefing the president, who was spending the weekend in Washington.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Biggs, Crane, Gosar, Lesko, Schweikert oppose government shutdown deal