House Republicans’ rejection this week exposed intraparty divisions over spending and highlighted the challenges GOP leadership faces in its ambitious plan to pass all 12 annual budget bills by the end of the month.
Republicans were caught off guard Thursday when 10 of their own party members voted with most Democrats to reject a GOP-drafted bill to fund the Legislature for next fiscal year.
Republican leaders have said their party’s goal is to pass the rest of the bill this month, having already passed four bills that would bring government spending to more than $1 trillion, but tougher bills could be on the way.
The legislation, the smallest of 12 bills, would provide funding for Congressional operations, the U.S. Capitol Police, the Library of Congress, the Congressional Budget Office and other offices.
But some Republicans who voted against the bill this week said they were unhappy with the funding levels it proposes, which they say would create a variety of problems, including a $375 million spending increase for fiscal year 2025.
“The Pentagon’s military budget is about $1 trillion,” said Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, one of several Republicans who voted along party lines. videoThe president explained his decision this way: “With interest on the national debt at about $1 trillion, it seemed to me that this bill and this timing were not right, because if it passed the Senate and was signed by the President, the new spending would amount to more than $7 billion for the Legislature.”
“That’s an increase of $375 million, 5.6 percent, almost 6 percent, over last year’s expenditures, so that’s a bit of an issue for me,” he said, also taking issue with increases to councillors’ representative allowances and the Library Council.
Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said he opposed the bill because, in addition to the proposed across-the-board increases, the House failed to add amendments that would have blocked funding for electric vehicle charging stations around the Capitol and cut funding “to legislative physicians who promoted COVID mask mandates.”
The bill only has support from three Democrats and will have an uphill battle to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate in its current form, but its recent defeat underscores the challenge Republican leaders continue to face in uniting the party on a budget bill, especially as they work to raise spending limits that the party agreed to on a bipartisan basis last year.
The rejection overshadowed a news conference held hours earlier by members of the House Appropriations Committee, the powerful body that writes the annual budget, and the last of 12 party-level budget bills to pass through it this week.
“I think it’s fair to say we’ve restored respect to the spending process,” Rep. Steve Womack (R-Arkansas), an expert on spending issues, said at the event.
“Given that today is July 11th and that all 12 appropriations bills that have been considered in committee have been amended, one-third have been considered by the House, and the rest will be considered shortly, this is a departure from the norm over the last 14 years that I’ve been in Congress, and certainly the last 10 years,” he said. [fiscal year] 24 situations that we all endured.”
When Republicans took back the House last year, they vowed to restore fiscal discipline and order, with ambitious pledges to pass all 12 budget bills and avoid a big omnibus bill at the end of the year. But months of infighting over spending and disagreements on areas like abortion and FBI funding have culminated in a new speaker and two budget proposals that many conservatives still oppose.
“They operate with much narrower majorities in the chamber than we do, and they can have difficulties simply because people are at odds or get sick,” House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said of GOP leadership ahead of Thursday’s vote on the Legislature’s budget bill.
At the same time, Senate Democrats passed the first three annual spending bills out of committee. The committee’s top Democrats and Republicans also announced agreements to increase spending beyond last year’s budget cap deal, setting the stage for a spending fight with the House in the coming months.
Cole said Republicans would “act within the bounds of the law,” adding that “if there are any adjustments or changes from leadership, our negotiators will go from there.”
But House Democrats are also pushing for more funding increases, while Republicans are slashing elements of a budget cap deal passed last year that are not included in the law and could lead to increased funding for non-defense programs.
Funding issues, and the list of conservative policy riders Republicans are pursuing in the fiscal 2025 funding bill, mean the bill has little to no Democratic support, putting pressure on GOP leadership to secure enough GOP support in the narrowly divided House to pass the measure.
Asked about his party’s goal of finishing votes on all 12 budget bills by the end of the month, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) told reporters after Thursday’s vote that “we’re on track to do that and we’re still working toward that goal.”
“When I come back in two weeks, I’ll have four bills on the table, and there will be some opportunities to pass additional bills,” Scalise told The Hill on Thursday as lawmakers prepare to leave town ahead of next week’s Republican National Convention.
“The real question is whether the Senate will finally consider anything, when the House has already passed more than 68 percent of the government’s budget.”
