Hardline conservatives in the House of Representatives left Washington frustrated that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) broke his promise to pass a spending bill, but they didn’t necessarily blame him.
Johnson has been in power longer than his predecessor, who was sacked in part over dissatisfaction with his handling of the spending crisis, but he has come no closer to satisfying hardline Conservatives on the issue.
“You know, these are the same frustrations we had last year,” said Rep. Eli Klain, R-Ariz., chairman of the House Freedom Caucus.
Despite leadership efforts to pass 12 regular spending bills the way hardliners want, conservatives continue to use heavy-handed tactics and oppose them citing differences over policies and spending levels.
During his election as speaker last year, Johnson pledged to keep the House in session until August until all spending bills were passed, but the House canceled a vote scheduled for the last week of July and adjourned early in August.
“I believed we could actually do something about the budget and the spending bill. That’s what we were told last year,” Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., said. “Kevin [McCarthy] “When I became speaker, that didn’t happen. They said it would happen this year, but if it doesn’t happen, I’ll be stuck there until August. It’s not going to happen.”
“If you don’t mean it, don’t say it,” Biggs added.
But unlike former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), hardliners seem resigned to the fact that the spending bill’s goals will not be met and are not necessarily blaming the speaker.
“That’s to be expected, so while it’s frustrating at this point, it’s something we expected,” Klain said of the House leaving without passing all of those bills.
Meanwhile, Johnson told reporters last week that the House of Commons would benefit from a recess.
“American politics have been through a tumultuous few weeks,” Johnson said, referring to the assassination attempt on former President Trump and the thwarting of President Biden’s reelection.
“Now is a good time to give everybody some time to go back to their districts and do a little bit of campaigning. We’re going to come back, regroup and continue our work,” Johnson said.
In a statement to The Hill, Johnson’s spokeswoman, Athena Lawson, said the House of Representatives had “made significant progress moving the bill forward.” [fiscal 2025] “Appropriations Bill”
“The House Appropriations Committee has vigorously moved all 12 bills out of committee, the House has passed 75 percent of next year’s budget, and the Senate has yet to take up a single appropriations bill. The House will continue its successful efforts to responsibly fund our government. [fiscal 2025] “Upon my return from my term with the district,” Lawson said.
As with McCarthy, how Johnson handles the rest of this year’s spending issues could determine his hopes of continuing to lead House Republicans next year.
Several members already want him fired.
“I think there should be a change in leadership right now, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow. I want it as soon as possible,” said Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), one of two Republicans who supported Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)’s effort to oust Johnson earlier this year.
But Massie acknowledged he’s “not a good test case” for other Republicans.
Meanwhile, some hard-liners acknowledged progress and said they were not necessarily upset that the speaker started the August recess early.
Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), a member of the Freedom Caucus, said he is “frustrated” with the spending process. “I’m less frustrated than I was last year,” he added, citing “incremental steps” in the right direction.
“From what we’ve seen, staying until August probably wouldn’t have been very fruitful,” Griffiths said. “So I think the speaker made the right decision.”
And Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) was not keen to criticise Johnson in light of the spending bill’s missteps.
“Mike, [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] Here, in uniting us and advancing the SAVE Act, [appropriations] Let’s wait and see until we receive the invoice. [how] “That’s all going to happen,” Roy said, referring to a bill passed by the House earlier this month that would expand proof of citizenship requirements to voting in federal elections.
But Roy offered some strategic suggestions.
He said the House should have passed a stopgap bill to keep the government funded after Sept. 30, bundled with a bill Democrats would surely veto, so Republicans could have “stomped the hell out of Democrats” in August and said, “We don’t want to fund the government, but we do want to let foreigners vote.”
Many House Republicans have shifted their focus to September, with lawmakers on both sides acknowledging that stopgap measures are needed to prevent a government shutdown.
The deadline, set in the early fall, marks exactly one year since McCarthy forced a vote on a “clean” stopgap budget bill, a decision that immediately led to his unprecedented ouster.
Johnson will face a bigger test from hard-liners on how to stave off threats of a government shutdown, where cracks have already begun to appear within the duration of the stopgap measures as the 2024 presidential election cycle heats up.
Many conservatives are optimistic that former President Donald Trump will be returned to office in November and are arguing for a stopgap measure to fund the government until next year, which they say would avoid the risk of a Democratic-led Senate and White House pushing for a massive omnibus spending package in December.
But other Republicans are pushing for the fundraising effort to be completed by the end of the year, given the expiration of tax provisions in the 2017 tax reform law signed by President Trump and as both parties begin preparing for a fierce new fight over the debt ceiling.
“Different people have different views,” Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, a hardline conservative, said of the issue last week, adding that he and other members of the Freedom Caucus support a stopgap measure until March.
“That’s the point of contention,” he said, adding that he “definitely” doesn’t want to see an omnibus format.
Michael Schnell contributed.
