Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), chairman of the Freedom Caucus, launched a furious critique of his House conservative colleagues for rejecting a stopgap spending proposal that could prevent a federal government shutdown.
"If a Republican opposes a 30-day, 8% cut to the non-defense, non-veteran federal government with the best border security bill we've ever had attached to it, I honestly don't know what to say to my fellow Republicans, other than you're gonna eat a s*** sandwich, and you probably deserve to eat it," Roy said this Wednesday, in an interview with Fox News Digital.
"I'm an equal opportunity basher of stupid, and I think this is stupid," he added.
According to Fox News, this stopgap spending proposal, rejected by a vote of 212-214, is one of twelve appropriations bills that Congress is trying to pass to fund the government for the next fiscal year.
If agreements are not reached in record time before September 30, the Government could enter a partial shutdown.
This CR would cut federal government funding by approximately $130 billion from the current fiscal year and would include the GOP-sponsored border security bill called HR 2.
THREAD re: govt funding. In 12 days, funding expires. The question is what we demand to fund it. My position is we must get substantive wins on - among other things - the border, DOD wokeness, DOJ weaponization, & spending cuts to support funding. #NoSecurityNoFunding (1/5)
— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) September 18, 2023
Congressmen rejected the project proposal in the step known as a rules vote. The Democrats were joined by five Republican representatives: Matt Rosendale, Ralph Norman, Andy Biggs, Dan Bishop and Ken Buck. The last time a vote of this type failed was in November 2002 and twice with Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House.
The project proposal emerged from a negotiation between the hardline Freedom Caucus and the moderate Main Street Caucus. Rejection is a clear symptom of the GOP's internal short circuits.
"Ask those five why they voted against it. Think about what they're voting against. They're voting against even bringing the bill up to have a discussion about it to vote on. If you're opposed to the bill, vote against the bill at the end…You could change it if you don't like it. But the idea that you vote against a rule, to even bring it up, that makes no sense to me," McCarthy told the media .
