Kevin McCarthy’s plan for short-term spending package gets icy reception by his fellow

Speaker Kevin McCarthy seems to have accepted the GOP-led House will not be able to push through 12 spending bills before the end of the fiscal year, and will instead need to pass a resolution to keep government funding at its current levels temporarily.

Congress has until September 30 to pass legislation to fund the government through fiscal year 2024 – but the House does not return from recess until September 11.

The speaker told his rank-and-file members on a press call Monday that a short term CR, or continuing resolution, was the most likely path forward – prompting immediate opposition from a number of Republicans who would rather not see the process drawn out.

A continuing resolution would extend current spending levels – which were set under Democrats in last year’s 117th Congress – and buy more time for Congress to hash out its differences.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday that he and McCarthy had met ‘a few weeks back’ and agreed to pursue a CR.

‘I thought that was a good sign,’ Schumer told Morning Joe on Wednesday. ‘We are working together to avoid that shutdown in the Senate, Democrats and Republicans, but the House, McCarthy is going to have the dilemma of dealing with these hard right people who are just totally destructive and angry.’

McCarthy has promised to push through 12 separate funding bills, which set spending levels for each agency separately, rather than an over-arching ‘omnibus’ bill.

Under an omnibus, members are often forced to choose between voting for provisions they don’t agree with or holding up funding for the government and forcing a shutdown.

But some conservatives say Congress should not punt its disagreements down the road.

‘I am a NO on any Continuing Resolution that only kicks the can down the road,’ moderate GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales wrote on X, formerly Twitter. ‘Lock Congress in a room until we pass a conservative budget void of excess financial waste.’

Conservative Rep. Chip Roy, Texas, came out forcefully against a continuing resolution.

‘Under no circumstances will I support a ‘continuing resolution’ to fund the government at the bloated, corrupt 2023 levels,’ he said in a statement. ‘This is especially true if it were to stupidly expire in December.’

He also suggested Congress should have worked through the August recess to get spending bills done.

‘I might – might – support a short series of 24 hour ‘CR’s’ to create maximum pain for Congress to do its damned job, which – by the way – we could be doing in Washington right now.’

McCarthy could pass short-term continuing resolution with the help of Democrats, but the pushback from conservatives again prompts the question of how McCarthy will navigate the spending battle and secure budget cuts for fiscal year 2024 without angering the rightward flank.

Even before the final vote on a short term CR, McCarthy would need the support of almost all Republicans for a procedural vote on the rule for the CR. Democrats typically do not assist the GOP speaker with passing the rule on a bill, even if they do vote for the final bill.

‘McCarthy has been allegedly talking about, ‘Well, we’ll do a three-month CR into December.’ That’s exactly the playbook to try to get it done and to roll us,’ Roy said in a Spaces conversation on X on Monday. ‘So we’re going to have to throw everything we have in fighting that heading into September.’

If the House did a longer-term CR to stretch into the new year, an automatic one percent across-the-board cut would kick in beginning January 1.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said a short-term deal followed by one percent cuts could be preferable to Democrats.

‘Joe Biden’s going to get 100% of what he wants, followed by 99% of what he wants,’ he said in a Spaces conversation on X Monday night.

Conservative Rep. Chip Roy, Texas, came out forcefully against a continuing resolution

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said a short-term deal followed by one percent cuts could be preferable to Democrats

Some of the conservative demands include immediately cutting funding to agencies tied up in Donald Trump’s legal woes. Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, said he would not vote for a CR that doesn’t ‘smash’ the Department of Justice’s budget.

‘I WILL NOT vote for any continuing resolution that doesn’t smash Biden’s DOJ into a million pieces,’ Jackson wrote on X. ‘The DOJ has very rapidly become the enemy of the American people, and if nothing is done soon, our rights will be GONE. We MUST defund it!!’

Roy, meanwhile, has said he would not vote for a stopgap or full-year spending bill that funds the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) without policy changes.

Last week, fourteen other House Republicans from Texas signed on to a letter from Roy promising to oppose DHS funding without major changes.

McCarthy did not appear to be on board with holding up funding for DHS ahead of the August recess. ‘I want my border secure. I’m going to fund my border,’ McCarthy said.

Further complicating matters is Ukraine funding.

President Biden requested $40 billion in supplemental funding, including some $24 billion for Ukraine last week. The House’s right-wing members balked at the request – 12 of them wrote a letter to the White House expressing their outrage.

‘Americans are tired of funding endless wars and want policies that not only help restore fiscal sanity in Washington, but also put America and American citizens first,’ the lawmakers wrote.

The White House requested the supplemental aid ‘as part of a potential short-term continuing resolution for the first quarter of FY 2024,’ though it’s not clear if leadership would pair Ukraine aid with the spending bill.

Last month, 89 House Republicans voted for an amendment to strip $300 million in aid for Ukraine from the Pentagon’s yearly spending bill.