The timeline is shrinking for the GOP leadership’s ambitious funding plans as the party faces internal spending divisions and a tight schedule ahead of the August recess.
Republicans had already planned to vote on four funding bills this week as part of a larger effort to pass all 12 annual spending bills by the end of next week.
But in a new schedule, the Chamber plans drawn up vote on just two bills this week, including measures to fund the Interior and Energy departments for much of 2025, while rolling out plans to vote on funding proposals for agencies like the Department of Agriculture and financial services.
In comments to reporters on Monday, Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee that crafts annual funding bills, cited lawmakers’ tight schedule this week when asked about the plans discarded.
“Apparently there are other things falling to the ground,” he said Monday afternoon. “I mean, there will be a bipartisan bill on a commission to look into the attempted assassination of President Trump.”
“But yeah, we’ll see what happens. We are still moving. We still have four on the floor. If that happens, we will have six,” he said, while noting that the House is still “well ahead of the Senate.”
However, he and other Republicans acknowledge other concerns that could present obstacles for the party as it works to get the remaining party funding projects across the finish line.
So far, the House has passed four of its 12 funding bills, and members are optimistic about passing the remaining funding bills when Congress returns home for the August recess.
But members were caught by surprise earlier this month when they saw their annual legislative branch funding bill fail on the floor after a group of conservatives defected amid concerns about spending levels and other issues.
Discussing the funding bills coming this week, Cole noted some member concerns about the funding levels in the FY 2025 energy and water funding bill, arguing, “This is all additional money, honestly, for the nuclear triad, and it makes a lot of sense.”
“I think they’re good bills, they’re very solid, but we’ll see,” he said. “I mean, it didn’t take long to lose the [legislative] branch bill and, you know, five, six, seven members go south with you, you’re in trouble.
His comments underscore the challenges leadership faces in passing all 12 funding bills with a slim majority, especially as partisan politics in areas such as abortion and lower spending levels than those pursued in the Senate impede the majority. of Democrats to support the legislation.
Some Republicans have also tempered expectations about other funding bills on the horizon, including measures to fund the FBI, as members acknowledge that intraparty disagreements over spending and policy that hampered efforts to pass similar legislation last year continue. to persist.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
