House Republicans’ ambitious hopes of passing their annual government funding bills by next week are quickly falling apart as a tight schedule and intraparty disagreements threaten efforts to pass their 2025 spending plans.
Previously, Republicans aimed to have all 12 annual funding bills passed by the August recess. But the timeline has been slipping as leadership has rejected plans to vote on legislation funding the Department of Agriculture and financial services amid concerns about restrictions on reproductive rights.
On Tuesday night, a planned vote on the bill to fund the Department of Energy was abruptly canceled.
And now, Republicans say leaders are planning to start the August recess early this week, despite earlier plans to hold votes next week on their pending funding legislation.
A House Republican who spoke to The Hill said a leadership office told them “point blank” that the House will not return for votes next week. Several others said they had heard that the votes would likely be canceled as well.
That would be a change from House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) promise when he first took the gavel that the House would not go into recess without passing all 12 bills.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told The Hill on Tuesday that leadership “will make a formal announcement about next week’s schedule by tomorrow.”
Asked about plans for the House to resolve its pending funding bills, Scalise defended the House’s work thus far, while also noting the challenges that strong Democratic opposition and defections on the Republican side pose to the party’s efforts to pass the remaining measures.
“When you have a situation where all the Democrats vote no on all the appropriations bills, you end up running into a wall because, you know, we have some of our own members who vote against some of these bills.”
“We pass on around 70% of all government funding to the Senate. At some point, it’s time for the Senate to start doing its job,” he said. The Senate has not yet approved any of its funding bills for fiscal year 2025.
Republicans are pushing for their annual spending bills to cover the Energy, Interior and other related departments this week. If approved, Republicans will have approved half of their annual government funding plans.
The bills are much more partisan in nature than those being drafted in the Democratic-led Senate, where a 60-vote threshold is required for most legislation.
However, there is a lot of uncertainty about House Republicans’ ability to pass the remaining funding bills. The divisions that hampered the conference’s efforts to approve its funding plans for fiscal year 2024 have resurfaced.
Earlier this month, a small faction of Republicans thwarted the party’s attempt to pass a bill to fund the Legislature.
In comments to reporters this week, Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, said he had heard some “pro-life” concerns about changes to the farm finance bill, which Republicans were previously expected to be voted on this week.
Earlier this year, Republicans notably omitted language in the funding bill that would have limited access to the abortion pill mifepristone, after a similar effort helped doom their 2024 fiscal plan following pushback from moderates.
Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), chairman of the subcommittee drafting the bill, expressed confidence in the measure’s chances of passage in comments to The Hill on Monday. He noted that the legislation “decreases funding” and cited the House’s timeline, as Congress prepares for a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week, as an explanation for this week’s postponed vote.
“I think the main objections that often come up as to why it didn’t pass last year have been removed, so I don’t see a problem with that,” said Harris, who is a member of the House Freedom Caucus. when pressed about the bill that does not include mifepristone language.
But that didn’t stop others from disagreeing with the change.
“That’s one of the issues I’ve identified,” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), another member of the House Freedom Caucus, when pressed on the issue, as well as his support for other measures.
“My belief is that you need to figure these things out and know, in aggregate, what you’re trying to accomplish,” he said. “So I think this bill is stuck and so we’ll have to see what the deal is.”
At the same time, a bill covering funding for Washington, D.C. — including emergency planning, security costs and other programs — is also facing resistance from some moderates over a party-backed effort to strike a Washington law , DC intended to protect employees. ‘reproductive rights.
The proposal was one of the reasons the party fought to pass the same funding bill measure last year. And if it remains as it is, the project could lose the support of moderates again this time.
“Last year, I voted against the bill for a few reasons, including this one, and I still continue to oppose this provision,” Rep. Nick LaLota (RN.Y.) told The Hill on the issue earlier this year . “If it remains in the project, I will vote against the project again.”
An earlier timeline released by House GOP leadership also aimed for a vote on the Justice Department’s annual funding bill this week, but pressed on that measure, Cole said “that’s always difficult,” while also noting that funding for FBI headquarters “has been a big pain in the ass.” of discord.”
His comments come months after hard-line conservatives bristled at the inclusion of dollars for a new FBI headquarters in a larger government funding package for fiscal year 2024 that ultimately passed Congress despite immense backlash. on the right flank of the conference.
But that doesn’t mean the leadership isn’t facing some pressure to move forward in trying to pass the measures.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) said leadership should “negotiate” a deal on the remaining funding projects “in whatever time it takes to resolve,” while speculating that leadership is voting on some of the bills pending because they do not have sufficient support.
“But that’s not how it’s done in business. If you have a problem, you face it,” he said.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
