The House Freedom Caucus has adopted a formal position in support of passing a continuing resolution to extend government funding past the Sept. 30 end-of-year deadline through early 2025, with the intention of avoiding a year-end omnibus bill that could favor Democrats.
The move by hardline conservative groups amounts to a warning about a fight over funding that will be central to Congress when it returns from its August recess and will pose a key test for House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana.
In a public statement released Monday, the Freedom Caucus also called for the temporary measures to be combined with the Protecting American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, a bill led by Freedom Caucus member Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) that would expand citizenship requirements to voting in federal elections and require states to purge their voter rolls. The House passed the bill in June.
“The House Freedom Caucus believes House Republicans should return to Washington and continue their work to pass all 12 appropriations bills to cut spending and advance their policy priorities. If that fails, Congress would inevitably consider a continuing resolution and extend government funding until early 2025 to avoid a lame-duck omnibus bill that would preserve Democratic spending and policies into the next administration,” the group said in an official statement.
“Furthermore, the continuing resolution must include the SAVE Act, as President Trump has called for, to prevent foreign nationals from voting in order to maintain free and fair elections, given the millions of illegal immigrants the Biden-Harris administration has imported over the past four years,” he added.
The Freedom Caucus’ official position requires 80% support from the group of about 30 lawmakers — a slim majority in the House that’s enough to kill a bill that Democrats uniformly oppose, but not enough to block a measure that has significant bipartisan support.
Even before the August recess, lawmakers predicted that the House’s funding fights over spending — which saw Republican leaders cancel scheduled votes on several spending bills — would move away from individual bills and toward a continuing resolution framework to avert a government shutdown on Oct. 1. For hard-line conservatives, a year-end omnibus bill negotiated by party leaders would be a worst-case scenario, as it would often lead to increased spending and funding for policies they oppose.
Asked about moves to extend government funding until 2025 in an interview with The Hill last week, Mr Johnson said he was “considering all alternatives”.
“We are carefully discussing the pros and cons of different strategies. No decision has been taken yet but one will be taken shortly,” Johnson said, adding that a closure was “in the country’s interest”.
A statement outlining the Freedom Caucus’ position said the group’s goal is to ensure Democrats “cannot undermine President Trump’s second term with a lame-duck omnibus bill in December.”
Other House Republicans worry that extending government funding beyond the end of the year could backfire because a Trump victory in 2024 is far from certain — let alone whether Republicans can retain control of the House and win the Senate. They also worry that extending funding could give Democrats an opportunity to enact an even more liberal funding plan than one lame-duck President Biden might sign into law in a December omnibus bill.
Moreover, Republicans who oppose the Freedom Caucus’ position worry that even if Trump wins, the funding fights within Congress will only distract from other urgent priorities as he tries to regain his hold on the White House.
Johnson told The Hill that the House has passed several spending bills to cover much of the government’s budget and suggested that it’s “not clear” that a continuing resolution is even necessary.
But with only 13 votes scheduled in the House before the end of the fiscal year, avoiding a continuing resolution is highly unlikely. The Senate has not passed a single budget bill. The House-passed bills, which make up about half of the 12 “regular” budget bills, are partisan and will likely require further negotiations to get them through the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Congress has not gone through its own process of approving all 12 spending bills.Funding the governmentSince 1997, this has been carried out by October 1st before the start of the fiscal year.
Where Johnson stands to avert a shutdown could have serious consequences for him. Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was removed from office just days after passing a “clean” continuing resolution to avert a shutdown, with several of the eight senators who voted to remove him citing his stance on funding issues. McCarthy argues that those who removed him, including Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee, had more personal grudges.
