The fight to avoid a government shutdown is again bringing out the fault lines within the House GOP’s razor-thin majority.
House Republican leaders sought to avoid another messy, drawn-out battle over federal funding this year by rolling out an ambitious schedule to pass all 12 individual appropriations bills before the annual August recess.
That effort has been all but derailed; rank-and-file Republicans are frustrated that GOP rebels are pushing for politically unpopular votes on measures that would likely not be in the final bills after compromising with the Democratic-held Senate. Fiscal conservatives and GOP rebels, however, accused the former of being unwilling to utilize their House majority.
Now some GOP lawmakers are accusing the latter of “political masturbation” while the rebels blast the “terrible process” that lawmakers have followed for years.
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Speaker Mike Johnson’s conference originally aimed to pass all 12 spending bills by August. (Chip Somodevilla)
“Many of the appropriators are not excited about seeing some of these amendments being voted on. So, they vote against the amendments, and they get upset with those people when they don’t vote for the full appropriations bill, so everybody’s mad,” one House Republican granted anonymity to speak freely told Fox News Digital.
A second House Republican said, “Most of them I do philosophically agree with, so it’s not that it’s tough. It’s that they’re unnecessary. We know they’re not going anywhere.”
“If you bring an amendment up that … makes me feel good … but it’s literally not going to pass a markup, or it’s not going to allow the bill to pass on the floor because the moderates are not going to like it, it’s just political masturbation at that point. So, what are we doing?” the second GOP lawmaker said.
“The rest of us can have that impact, too. We choose not to because we’re trying to get these bills passed. We’re actually trying to do our jobs here.”
GOP leaders had aimed to pass the bill funding the Justice and Commerce departments this week. But after it passed through committee absent an amendment defunding prosecutions against former President Trump and was bashed by the ex-president, lawmakers have yet to see it get a House-wide vote.
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The failure of an amendment to stop Special Counsel Jack Smith and other Trump investigators appears to have derailed one spending bill. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
And on Tuesday evening, the Energy and Water appropriations bill was abruptly pulled from the House floor schedule amid worries about it passing.
“What we’re sick of is not passing the most conservative bills that we can get to be able to even start the negotiation,” Republican Study Committee Chair Kevin Hern, R-Okla., told Fox News Digital. “What a lot of people are upset about is trying to find a bill and vote on it on the House side that will pass the Senate. And … the conservative people in our party are wanting bills that represent the conservative principles of the Republican Party as a starting point.”
House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., said, “They should be bringing these things out to the floor. They should be openly debated, discussed – and amendments proposed out there on the floor in front of all 435 members and, in the end, the American people – and that’s not what’s being done, and that’s why we have this terrible process.”
It’s all but certain that Congress will have to pass a short-term extension of this year’s funding, known as a continuing resolution (CR), something that fiscal hawks who voted against last year’s funding packages will likely oppose.
Punting government funding into the new year or even into December will mean the next steps are largely dependent on who wins the presidential election.
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Any final deal will need to be hashed out with Democrat Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“I’m disappointed that we have not been able to find a consensus to pass all the appropriations bills before the August recess. I hope we can do that in September. I think members have to be realistic about what their goals and objectives are for a CR until after the election,” said Rep. French Hill, R-Ark.
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House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole, R-Okla., confirmed to reporters that a short-term bill would be necessary to avoid a partial government shutdown.
“I’ve always said we’d have to do a CR,” Cole said. “And then whoever wins the election will make the decision, do you want a deal by the end of the year or do you want to kick them to the next Congress? I hope, my advice to whoever wins, would be do it by the end of the year.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Speaker Mike Johnson’s office for comment but did not hear back by press time.
