Divided control over chambers of U.S. Congress guarantees neither political party gets everything it wants. But conservative lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives are trying anyway in their fight over the government’s budget. Their requests are so extreme that the measures stand no chance of passing in the Democratic-controlled Senate, which is required to avoid a shutdown. While it could be either avoidable or short-lived, a longer shuttering of the U.S. government seems inevitable.
But the four measures may be blocked by House Republicans before reaching a vote, an unusual move in itself since the bills are being brought forward by their own party leader. The issue is that a small group of hardline conservatives are digging in their heels in a highly politicized manner. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said on Sunday she opposes the budget’s $300 million charge for training Ukrainian troops – that amounts to 0.02% of the total $1.5 trillion budget. The House Freedom Caucus has called to defund the Justice Department office prosecuting former president Donald Trump, as well as bar the Pentagon from covering some service members’ abortions. Both are also minuscule in the context of overall spending.
More broadly, the group wants assurances that the remaining spending bills will stick to a $1.47 trillion cap, roughly $60 billion below the level McCarthy proposed earlier in September. Some other extra cuts echo the party’s goal of lowering the federal budget shortfall, yet several other measures do not. The House’s financial services budget would cut funding for the Internal Revenue Service by $1.1 billion, harming the government’s ability to collect taxes. At the same time, Republicans’ homeland security measure includes $2 billion for restarting construction of Trump’s ineffective U.S.-Mexico border wall – a spending measure.
The last stoppage, which lasted a record seven weeks between 2018 and 2019, was only solved through compromise between House Democrats and Senate Republicans. Ending a shutdown this time depends on Republicans reaching a consensus in their own party. Each party’s slim majorities in the House and Senate already make compromise a tall order. Add another faction, and the coming shutdown looks likely to be the country’s longest yet.
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CONTEXT NEWS
U.S. Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is pushing forward with four spending bills for fiscal 2024 that are part of a $1.47 trillion appropriations package. The figure sits $120 billion below levels McCarthy and President Joe Biden agreed to as part of the Fiscal Responsibility Act approved in May.
Hardline conservatives have blocked McCarthy’s efforts to advance a defense spending measure three times, most recently halting an effort to vote on the legislation on Sept. 21. Republicans blocking the spending bills have called for assurances that the full 2024 budget adhere to the $1.47 trillion top line, and that it include amendments for blocking Ukraine aid, fighting “weaponization” of the Justice Department and ramping up law enforcement at the US-Mexico border.
