New spending deal on Capitol Hill: Will Arizona's far-right members of Congress derail it?

House Speaker Mike Johnson struck a tentative federal spending deal with Democrats this weekend, a significant step toward passing a budget for fiscal year 2024. But disagreement within Republicans’ ranks, including from Arizona GOP members, is threatening the negotiations.

The new bipartisan agreement is quite similar to the spending package last year that prompted the party’s right flank to boot former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. It sets the government’s overall spending limit at approximately $1.6 trillion, nearly identical to McCarthy’s earlier plan.

Johnson, R-La., has said that the newest deal also includes some Republican victories, such as accelerating plans to roll back funding for the IRS and rescinding more than $6 billion in unspent pandemic relief funds.

Reps. Andy Biggs and Eli Crane, both R-Ariz., were among the eight Republican lawmakers who voted with Democrats in October to remove McCarthy as speaker. That move paralyzed the House’s operations for weeks as Republicans struggled to agree on a new coalition leader.

Both lawmakers have made it clear in public statements that they oppose the latest deal, though their offices did not respond to more detailed questions.

Biggs called the deal a “monstrosity” on Tuesday in a social media post, writing that “House Republicans cannot surrender like this and need to fight harder.” Crane reposted the conservative House Freedom Caucus’ condemnation of the agreement as “total failure.”

Likewise, Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., a conservative who did not vote to remove McCarthy as speaker, wrote that he “can’t support” the deal.

Biggs and Crane are among the Republicans who have threatened to force a government shutdown if Democrats do not agree to tougher border laws. Biggs reiterated that demand after the latest agreement was announced.

“The Biden Administration won't enforce our laws so we ought to be defunding them to get them back in line. We can have serious leverage if my colleagues get on board. We control the money,” Biggs wrote Tuesday on social media.

The Senate is working on separate legislation that would instead tie immigration reform to foreign military aid. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., has played a leading role in those negotiations.

As backlash from hard-line Republicans continues, Johnson faces the same choice that led to McCarthy’s removal last year: either continue trying to extract concessions from Democrats, and risk running up against government shutdown deadlines, or strike a deal with bipartisan support, alienating far-right members in the process and risking his own removal.

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Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., has argued the latest deal is proof that his colleagues’ hard-line tactics have been misguided.

“This budget agreement largely resembles the legislation we already passed nearly eight months ago — proving that the partisan gamesmanship that got us to this point wasn't worth it,” Schweikert said Monday in a written statement. “It's my hope that my brothers and sisters in Congress learn from this lesson, put aside their personal qualms, and get back to serious legislating.”

Absent any action from Congress, funding for some government agencies will expire Jan. 19, with a full government shutdown to begin Feb. 2.

Congress has twice passed stopgap funding bills to stave off a shutdown, but has yet to pass an annual spending package in full. This week, top Senate Republicans urged passing another short-term funding measure, to give Congress more time to finish the new budget.

Laura Gersony covers national politics for The Arizona Republic.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: What Andy Biggs, Eli Crane and Paul Gosar say about new spending deal