House conservatives won’t make it easy for Kevin McCarthy to avoid a government shutdown. Members of the House Freedom Caucus, who currently hold 45 of the 221 Republican seats, let it be known that they will vote against any pension law that does not meet their demands. If this occurs, Congress will witness another confrontation between the Speaker of the House and the legislative group.
McCarthy clarified to House Republicans that he hopes to push for a short-term measure to fund the government beyond the end of the fiscal year (Sept. 30), avoiding a shutdown. This does not fit into the plans of the aforementioned group led by Scott Perry (R-PA), who knows that the leadership will need a good portion of its votes to avoid resorting to the Democrats.
In a statement titled, “No Security, No Funding,” the House Freedom Caucus states that it will say no to any spending bill that doesn’t address these four topics: reducing spending levels, the ‘woke’ advance in the military, the border, and the “weaponization” of the Justice Department and FBI.
The American people are sick of the status quo in Washington, D.C.
That’s why @freedomcaucus is using leverage afforded by our serious minded constituents who sent us to D.C. to:
-Return spending to pre-Covid levels
-Secure our border
-End the weaponization of government
-Get… pic.twitter.com/nO9DeHHeGo— Congressman Josh Brecheen (@RepBrecheen) August 21, 2023
“As Congress continues to work to pass appropriations bills, we must rein in the reckless inflationary spending, and the out-of-control federal bureaucracy it funds, crushing the American people. We remain committed to restoring the true FY 2022 topline spending level of $1.471 trillion without the use of gimmicks or reallocated rescissions to return the bureaucracy to its pre-COVID size while allowing for adequate defense funding,” they wrote in the letter.
“Furthermore, we will oppose any attempt by Washington to revert to its old playbook of using a series of short-term funding extensions designed to push Congress up against a December deadline to force the passage of yet another monstrous, budget-busting, pork-filled, lobbyist handout omnibus spending bill at year’s end and we will use every procedural tool necessary to prevent that outcome,” they added.
Finally, they clarified that they would not allow the federal government to continue funding Ukraine in its war against Russia. “Lastly, we will oppose any blank check for Ukraine in any supplemental appropriations bill,” they said.
The group acknowledged that the House is running out of time to pass a funding measure, assuming that the Democratic-controlled Senate will try to soften any text that comes with only Republican votes. During McCarthy’s aforementioned phone call with the Republican caucus in its entirety, the Californian made it clear that he does not want the debate on the matter to get bogged down during the winter recess.
