House Republicans will cancel votes next week and begin the August recess early as the party struggles to pass the government’s remaining annual funding bills.
GOP leadership confirmed the schedule change on Wednesday, a day before the final votes of the month were expected. The House is scheduled to return in early September.
Leaders pointed partly to Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s (D-Texas) funeral next week to explain the schedule change, but the canceled votes also come as the party has faced challenges getting several of its remaining funding projects cross the finish line this month.
Republicans were already hopeful of passing all 12 annual funding plans by next week. But the ambitious timeline began to rapidly wind down this week as leadership voted on several bills amid concerns about spending levels and hurdles related to reproductive rights.
“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,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told The Hill this week when pressed about the path forward for pending funding 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.
His comments came just hours before the House canceled plans to vote on the bill to fund the Department of Energy on Tuesday night, amid concerns from some members about the price tag.
“I’m a little undecided about [energy and water bill] because it increases spending,” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) when asked about his stance on the measure ahead of the planned vote. “So I need to look at this in the context of the whole package.”
At the same time, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) also expressed concern about a lack of money in one area in comments to The Hill.
“I wanted to see more funding for the Port of Savannah, Georgia,” she said. “This is the third largest port in the country, extremely important for our critical infrastructure as well as transporting supplies to Americans.”
“We need to dig eight feet deeper in that harbor so that big ships can get in and out easily without relying on the tide, and I was disappointed that there wasn’t enough money there for them to do that,” she said.
There is also uncertainty about how the Interior Department’s annual funding plan will fare ahead of Wednesday’s planned vote, with conservatives like Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) saying they are also undecided on the bill because they do not go far enough to reduce spending.
The House has so far approved four of its annual funding plans, while the Senate has yet to pass any funding bills for fiscal year 2025.
However, the House 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. That means that while Republicans can pass the bills in the House with a simple majority, the measures test the limits of the party’s narrow margin as Democrats have come out in strong opposition to the legislation.
“I’m worried about all of them right now,” Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), a big-spending Cardinal, told The Hill this week when discussing pending funding legislation. “We are fighting to get this approved.”
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
