Hardline conservatives in the House of Representatives are belatedly putting pressure on Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) to withdraw from a big spending deal with Democrats, frustrating Republicans on both sides of the aisle.
“That's pretty bad. It's ridiculous,” said Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., noting that his fellow lawmakers continued to complain about last year's spending deal. “When people complain all the time, it's like crying wolf. They just don't have any credibility anymore.”
Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) had even more pointed words for conservatives pushing to renegotiate the deal: “They're just reckless people.”
“It's easier for them to scream and vote no, because it takes a lot of courage to explain a yes vote and everything that goes into it,” Miller said. “My job would be a lot easier if I said I would vote no on any of this.”
After protesting the deal announced over the weekend, wasting procedural votes and postponing floor action on an unrelated bill until Wednesday, Conservatives gathered in Johnson's office on Thursday to push for a top-line deal. He persuaded Mr Johnson to withdraw his commitments and push for a new deal. Spending agreement with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and the White House.
“I will work to influence the Speaker to repeal the Schumer Accord, a deal that is bad for our country, and work to cut spending and secure our borders over the past year, and I will do everything I can to accomplish that.” said Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), chairman of the Freedom Caucus.
Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) answers questions from reporters after meeting with the House Freedom Caucus at the Capitol on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024. (Alison Robert)
The bipartisan agreement sets total spending at $1.59 trillion, plus about $69 billion in additional budget adjustments, which House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) announced last year to Biden last year. This is roughly in line with the spending cap included in the debt limitation agreement reached with the president. This angered Republicans and led to McCarthy's ouster. Johnson has touted several adjustments to the agreement, including accelerating the recovery of mandatory IRS funds and additional recovery of unused pandemic funds.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson assured reporters on Thursday that he had not made any promises to the Conservatives – “so if you hear it's different, it simply isn't true” – but chatter about a new framework It has infuriated Republicans, who have turned their guns on rioters stirring up insurrectionists. They were at the center of near-constant chaos in the House of Commons.
“Rank members of Congress who just want to solve the problems facing our country, and who understand that that is most likely to be achieved through incremental progress, are outraged by heavy-handed tactics.” said a House Republican. Speak openly and anonymously. “They think it's in the hands of the Democrats. They think it's hurting our ability to win in November. And they think it's holding the country back. I think people are angry.”
Rep. Garrett Graves (R-Louisiana), the lead negotiator on last year's Fiscal Responsibility Act bill, on which the spending agreement is based, said the Caucus Freedom Caucus' call to renegotiate the top line “is not I reaffirmed that.” We focus on real savings and real results. ”
“This is all theater for them. This is a drama caucus,” Graves said.
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Mr. Graves believes that continued hard-line tactics by these lawmakers over the past year, from spending cuts to the ouster of Mr. McCarthy, have resulted in long-term disruption of policies approved at spending levels in the last Congress, when Democrats had full control. It was argued that this resulted in the extension of time.
“Who are the conservatives? Good for you, guys,” Graves said.
House appropriators in particular have warned the speaker against trying to introduce an alternative bill, saying it would undermine his ability to negotiate anything else with Democrats.
“We cannot undo agreements that have already been made,” said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), the top spending official.
“If you're not going to honor the terms, you have a credibility problem,” said Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), another top appropriator, calling for a renegotiation of the deal. , adding that he believed this would increase the chances of an agreement. shutdown.
Congress aims to strike a deal to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year, with two phases of government funding with some programs set to expire on January 19 and others on February 2. is facing a deadline.
Across the Capitol, Senate Republicans were perplexed by the news coming from the far right wing of the House and the meeting with the Speaker.
When Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) was asked about the news Thursday, he bluntly replied, “It's not going to work.”
Top Republican lawmakers and appropriators say the deal is already done and it's too late to reverse course, especially to appease members of the Freedom Caucus, who are highly unlikely to support any bipartisan legislation. Ta.
“He's going to do everything he can to get the job done over there, and hopefully the Republican caucus that is interested in getting results will be able to work with him enough to get results, but at this point, I don’t know how to predict that,” Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican, told reporters.
“I think he's very honest and wants results, but he's going to have to manage an incredibly divided caucus and I think at some point he's going to have to do it in a bipartisan way, because “Because I don't think there's anyone in our party on their side of the aisle who would vote for anything,” he added.
Sen. John Thune (R.S.D.) speaks to reporters after the weekly policy luncheon on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024. (Alison Robert)
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the top Republican in the Senate, added that it would be “very difficult” to avoid a government shutdown if Johnson reneged on his deal with Schumer. .
As the Senate passes a short-term continuing resolution (CR), some of the efforts by hardline conservatives are focused on what stopgap funding measures to pursue.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is among those advocating for a long-term stopgap that triggers the automatic across-the-board 1% reduction built into debt in the Fiscal Responsibility Act. . Last year's restriction bill.
“We will carry out a long-term CR and negotiate the policies we want to secure our borders,” Jordan said Thursday, emerging from a meeting in Johnson's office. “That creates the motivation for us to actually do the work we need to do.”
The idea with long-term CR is to promote conservative policy riders like borders and immigration.
But this too faces a backlash from embezzlers.
“No appropriator likes CR,” said Appropriations Cardinal Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.).
Aris Folley, Al Weaver, and Mike Lillis contributed.
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