Right-wing Republicans shut down House action over government funding plan

WASHINGTON – The House was frozen once again on Wednesday afternoon after a group of 13 far-right Republicans shut down work on the floor in protest of House Speaker Mike Johnson’s handshake spending agreement with Democrats.

“I am so fed up with our own party,” Rep. John Rutherford, R-Fla., told USA TODAY, worrying that constant dysfunction in the House puts Republicans at risk of losing majority control in this year's elections. “This is what, the fourth or fifth rule they’ve taken down in just a couple months? They have no idea what it means to govern.”

Stopping procedural votes was once a rare and taboo move. But it’s not the first time that members of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus has flexed its muscle in the narrowly-divided chamber, much to the chagrin of their more moderate colleagues. It comes less than two weeks before Congress will hit yet another government funding deadline.

A member of the Freedom Caucus who has often aligned himself with leadership, Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, lamented that “everything has looked bad right from the beginning.”

“If we lose the House, we’ve earned it,” Nehls said following the rule vote’s failure.

The group of conservative members is furious that Johnson’s deal, which closely hews to one struck between former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden, does not reduce spending at the levels they believe are necessary. The agreement, they claim, comes off as a betrayal from what was expected when Johnson was first elected to the speakership.

Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., chair of the Freedom Caucus, told reporters he hopes the vote against proceeding earns “the attention of leadership” that hard-right members are frustrated with how spending negotiations have panned out.

“My hope is to persuade the speaker and the leadership and the entire Republican conference to not follow through with the deal that has been announced,” Good said.

Mainstream Republicans have argued the deal is not perfect, but delivers conservative wins and avoids a shutdown, which they say would reflect poorly on Republican leadership. After the rule vote failed, members expressed deep frustration – a familiar sight for the GOP-controlled House – with their more conservative colleagues.

Tight deadlines ahead

Congress has twice punted its own deadline to pass a budget – first in September by McCarthy, who lost his job over the extension, and second in November by Johnson, who pledged not to extend the deadline again.

But progress on the budget bills stalled between November and early January, and lawmakers are now left with just seven working days until several government agencies run out of funding.

Agriculture, energy and water, military construction and veterans affairs, transportation and housing programs will run out of money on Jan. 19. The rest of the government’s funding expires on Feb. 2.

Johnson and Schumer agreed to the total spending level on Sunday. There are a group of lawmakers working on each of the 12 appropriations bills, and they say they still have not received the total allocated to their respective legislation, presenting another challenge for Congress to avert a shutdown as time winds down.

That led Republican leadership in the Senate to call for another short-term funding extension on Tuesday.

Johnson on Wednesday declined to say whether he would support another extension, instead saying only that House Republicans have “the pedal to the metal trying to get appropriations done.”

Multiple other Republicans said they disagree with their Senate colleagues and urged Congress to race the clock to pull bills together rather than continue current spending levels.

“We don’t need a short term CR because this place works better on deadlines,” said Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla.

At least one Republican Appropriation Committee member, however, is singing a different tune.

“Of course we do” need an extension, said Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., who chairs the Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government. There’s a lot of division within the congress…it’s obvious to me we’re going to need some kind of a bipartisan solution.”

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., another member of the Appropriations Committee, said Johnson “made the right call” in supporting the agreement and that he has “very solid support” in the caucus.

“Nobody here is going to be perfectly happy. Anything that comes out of that (budget process) is going to be bipartisan,” he said. “I think we got some heartburn ahead of us, but I don’t think we will shut down.”

A path forward in the House?

Wednesday’s rule vote failure in the House illustrates how any deal to fund the government will likely have to pass the lower chamber through suspension, which dodges rule votes but requires two-thirds support from the House. That means any legislation considered under suspension requires significant Democratic support.

Both continuing resolutions passed last year to extend funding passed under suspension. Cole, also chair of the House Rules Committee, considered the lower chamber’s gatekeeper to legislation on the floor, told USA TODAY it’s “disappointing” and “unprofessional” for Republicans to constantly have to rely on Democrats to pass key legislation.

“Effectively, there’s not a (Republican) majority. There’s a coalition government,” Rep. Garret Graves said of the state of the House. “With a slim majority and with people waking up having a bad day, chip on their shoulder, ax to grind, yeah, effectively anything substantial that happens is gonna have to be a suspension bill.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Right-wing GOP shuts down House action over government funding plan