WASHINGTON – Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives failed to begin debate on the defense funding bill for the third time Thursday, putting another dent in Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s term.
The 212-216 vote The rejection of the $826 billion defense spending rule was unexpected and came less than a day after House Republican lawmakers gathered in a room in the Capitol basement to negotiate a path forward.
Arizona Rep. Eli Crane and Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene voted against the rule after voting to adopt it on Tuesday. Colorado Rep. Ken Buck and South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman both supported adopting the rule on Thursday after opposing it earlier in the week.
Other Republicans who voted no included Andy Biggs of Arizona, Dan Bishop of North Carolina and Matt Rosendale of Montana. The provision would have allowed the House to begin formal debate on the bill and vote on nearly 200 amendments.
The failed vote led to McCarthy reversing his schedule and many lawmakers heading home for the weekend on Thursday rather than voting throughout the weekend. McCarthy had said exactly a week ago that “If we come back, we won’t leave. We will do it.”
The House schedule update sent Thursday afternoon said, “Possible votes tomorrow or this weekend will be announced in a timely manner.”
The stalemate and change in plans does not bode well for efforts to pass the short-term spending bill needed to avert a partial government shutdown at the start of the fresh fiscal year on Oct. 1.
McCarthy has yet to unify his members amid deep disagreements over how much the federal government should spend and what policy restrictions should be included in the full-year and stopgap bills.
The ongoing dispute has brought the House floor to a standstill as McCarthy looks for a way to unite his razor-thin majority without turning to Democrats to pass a bipartisan bill.
Arkansas Republican Rep. Steve Womack, a senior appropriator, said Thursday that his fellow lawmakers must accept that the Senate will revise any partisan bills advanced by the House.
“Remember, this all goes to the Senate, so people don’t really have to be upset about where we are today,” Womack said. “It will depend on what comes back and whether or not it can get to the ground.”
Discussions among House Republicans, he said, are likely to get “heated” once the Senate revises a short-term spending bill and sends it back to the House for a final vote.
Infighting and political differences within the House Republican Conference have so far prevented GOP lawmakers from agreeing on their opening bid for a short-term spending bill, also known as a continuing resolution, or CR.
Defense spending bill fails
Before Thursday’s vote, McCarthy had been somewhat sanguine that the House could finally approve the rule and begin debate on the year-round defense spending measure.
Greene wrote on Der Rule approved 184 amendments for debate and voting, including one from Matt Gaetz of Florida that would have banned “security assistance to Ukraine.”
Crane wrote on X on Thursday that he believes votes “on CRs, omnibus legislation and raising the debt ceiling should never happen.”
“I will do everything I can to change the way this place operates,” he wrote.
Oklahoma Republican Rep. Tom Cole, chairman of the Rules Committee, changed his vote to a no vote Thursday after voting yes a few minutes earlier. The procedural maneuver allows him to bring the rule back up for a vote at a later date.
To Defense Appropriations Chairman Ken Calvert, a California Republican, the whip count error seemed a surprise; ranking member Betty McCollum, a Democrat from Minnesota; and staff — all seated at the tables in the House, ready to lead debate on the measure.
There were broad white folders and a immense accordion folder on the Republican table, all filled with paperwork, and there was also a pile of paperwork on the Democratic table. It is highly unlikely that staff would have brought all the materials needed to debate the bill and amendments if they had known the rules vote would fail.
“At least a short-term shutdown”
Aside from the sturdy disagreement among House Republicans over the full-year spending bills, the House GOP conference has yet to solidify a plan to pass the short-term stopgap spending bill needed to prevent a funding shortfall.
Idaho Republican Rep. Mike Simpson, chairman of the Interior and Environmental Spending Subcommittee, said he expects there will be “at least a short-term shutdown” as the House and Senate try to reach agreement on a bill for short-term expenses.
“It’s a lot of work in a very short period of time,” Simpson said.
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry, a Republican from Pennsylvania, said Thursday he had not seen any details on fresh short-term spending bills that could move toward passage.
“I didn’t see the language of another CR,” he said.
Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran, the top Republican on the Commerce, Justice and Science spending panel, said he “hopes the chaos in the House comes to an end.”
“I keep saying I won’t vote for another CR again, but I continue to vote for them because the outcome is worse in a shutdown,” Moran said. “But this simply has to be resolved in the House of Representatives. I don’t think there’s an issue in the Senate that would lead to a shutdown.”
Any short-term spending bill must be bipartisan to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate, where at least 60 votes are needed to limit debate on the legislation. That could take more time than lawmakers had before Oct. 1, he said.
“None of this is going to help get anything done quickly and we need to start with something that is acceptable,” Moran said.
“We are in a desperate situation”
Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said he was unsure when the Senate would take up a short-term government funding bill because House Republicans had not announced what they would vote on or when the adoption of a CR would be correct.
“The House of Representatives is a wreck and the Speaker appears to have no way of using his majority to solve a serious national problem. So we’re in a desperate situation,” Durbin said.
The House Budget Committee has approved 10 of its 12 spending bills for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, but the House has only approved one of them so far. All bills are partisan and below the spending levels that McCarthy and President Joe Biden agreed to in the debt limit Law.
The Senate spending panel has approved all dozen of its annual bills in a largely bipartisan vote, although efforts to pass a three-bill spending package were abandoned last week after Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson refused to allow the heads of state and government to schedule amendment votes.
The biggest hurdle for Congress right now is gaining support for the continuing resolution, which would extend federal funding past the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. This short-term spending bill is regularly used to give the House and Senate more time to negotiate final versions of the dozen annual spending bills.
Failure to approve a short-term spending bill before the start of fiscal year 2024 on Oct. 1 would result in a funding shortfall. This is leading to immense parts of the federal government being closed.
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