House Republicans are staying on track with their ambitious spending bill schedule, so far avoiding the intraparty fights over the budget that stalled the Legislature multiple times last year.
The shift reflects either House Republicans’ broad embrace of the tactical approach favored by hardline conservatives in the Legislature who have been at the center of past unrest, or the lack of a viable alternative: Pass the most conservative bill possible with their slim Republican majority and worry about negotiating with the Democratic-controlled Senate later.
On the agenda this week are bills to fund the departments of Homeland Security, State and Foreign Operations, and the Department of Defense. Republican leaders hope to pass all 12 annual funding bills before the August recess.
With Democrats controlling both the Senate and the White House, the bills have virtually no chance of becoming law, but after 18 months of a Congress riddled with Republican infighting (including the unprecedented ouster of the House speaker by a conservative firebrand), GOP leaders are scrambling to show they can govern and hold together a partisan Congress to pass major legislation to keep the government afloat ahead of the November election.
Republicans struggled to unite support on a budget bill last year, passing only seven of 12 spending bills this fiscal year. That infuriated conservatives and weakened their influence when it came to negotiating with Democratic leaders over bipartisan spending proposals that could eventually become law.
Conservatives have used procedural maneuvers to block debate on the funding bill in several dramatic protests.
But the discord that was common for months, including hours-long meetings in the speaker’s office and open rebellions on the floor, has subsided — in large part because this year’s bill builds on last year’s efforts and compromises, hardliners say.
“Last year was the best year we’ve had in probably decades to take stock of our budgets and to right-size these agencies,” said Rep. Michael Cloud (R-Texas), the conservative House Freedom Caucus.
Another thing that’s making hardliners happy is the conservative policy provisions included in the bill, such as a defense spending bill introduced this week that would ban the Department of Defense from using funds for gender-reassignment surgery or hormone therapy.
“The debate on spending bills has often just been about money, from a conservative/non-conservative standpoint. Money matters, but policy matters a lot, too. So there’s a recognition across our conference that we have to have good policy wins on these bills,” Cloud said.
There are other factors that make this year’s spending debate different from 2023’s.
For example, the personality differences between conservatives and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) were resolved when those same hard-liners ousted McCarthy from power.
And by the end of the year, conservatives had backed away from insisting on lower overall spending figures in the bill and largely accepted the debt ceiling caps in the Fiscal Responsibility Act that McCarthy had agreed to with President Biden.
Republican leaders also say they will no longer be locked into budgetary “side deals” from the agreement that have been a major source of hard-line opposition to the spending measure.
Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), who became chairman of the House Appropriations Committee in April, said last month that his committee’s bill “will adhere to the law as laid out in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, will not do any side deals and will focus resources where they are needed most.”
“I’m pleased that the ongoing FY25 budget process has produced top-line numbers and a solid base bill,” Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) said in a statement. “While there is certainly much more work to be done, it’s heartening to see House Republicans united in rejecting conflicting side deals and supporting conservative policy riders.”
“We must keep up the momentum and pass 12 conservative, fiscally responsible spending bills and deliver them to the American people,” Clyde added.
The closeness of the election also plays a role, with even the most staunch conservatives struggling to avoid infighting as control of the House of Representatives is at stake in November.
House Republicans got off to a good start on their ambitious spending plan in the first week of June, successfully passing the first of 12 spending bills to fund the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and military construction projects. The bill contained several conservative social policy riders, including provisions to block the expansion of abortion at the VA, to prohibit health care benefits for undocumented immigrants, and to ban the flying of the Pride flag on VA buildings, but it also garnered support from moderates. Only two Republicans defected.
The vote reflects the model GOP leaders are pursuing: They embrace conservative policy riders, but they also respect the political needs of more moderate Republicans, especially those facing tough reelection battles in battleground states where hardline social positions have alienated centrist voters. For example, the farm bill introduced this year does not include a policy rider that would have undone a Biden administration rule that allowed the abortion drug mifepristone to be sold in pharmacies and dispensed by mail, a provision that drew backlash from moderates last year.
There’s still plenty of room for ideological clashes as Republicans push through other bills. The defense, homeland security and foreign operations bill being introduced this week are some of the easiest to find broad agreement on.
The tougher fights will likely come over a bill to fund the Department of Health and Human Services, where abortion provisions will test Republican unity, and at the Department of Justice, where efforts to defund federal law enforcement agencies threaten to split the party.
And controversial amendments could always complicate the bill’s passage in the House. For example, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) led an amendment before the House Rules Committee this week to cut the salaries of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to $1.
Even if they can’t get everything they want, fiscal hawks hope they can shift the Republican Party’s overall stance on spending.
“In the past, we’ve seen the left sprint toward a fiscal cliff, and we’ve jogged toward that same fiscal cliff and called it a success,” Cloud said. “My position is that we shouldn’t be satisfied with anything less than at least a step in the right direction. We may not be able to sprint from the start, but we can’t keep moving in the wrong direction.”
