Hardliners block defense spending bill as GOP civil war worsens
House GOP hardliners prevented debate on the party’s defense budget bill on Tuesday. The Pentagon funding was thus the latest victim of a civil conflict between Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and his conservative critics.
In a procedural voting, Republican rebels defeated the annual defense budget bill. This was a shocking defeat for McCarthy and the hawks. They had sought to end the impasse on federal spending which forced leaders to pull the legislation from the books last week.
House GOP members are still in disagreement over a pending spending battle with the Senate, just 12 days before a shutdown of the government. Conservatives held back their votes for the Pentagon bill in order to pressure Republican leaders into a tougher stance on a temporary measure to keep the lights lit.
The procedural vote, also known as the rule, on the $826-billion defense spending bill failed by a vote of 212-214 on Tuesday. Five Republicans voted against the rule, which is almost always a party-line vote: Andy Biggs from Arizona, Dan Bishop from North Carolina, Ken Buck from Colorado, Ralph Norman and Matt Rosendale, both of Montana.
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Defense hawks criticized conservatives led by the House Freedom Caucus for blocking military funding over the last week. McCarthy was urged by some military-oriented Republicans to force a vote even if the measure was doomed. This would make conservatives take the blame.
Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., an appropriator that has urged the leadership to force this issue on the GOP defectors named them by name and compared their votes with appeasing China.
Garcia told reporters that “they just gave a victory to the Chinese Communist Party” as a result.
Mike Rogers, the Republican Chair of the House Armed Services Committee (Ala.), said: “It is illustrative to have five clowns who don’t even know what they are looking for except attention.”
The failure of the vote has further hampered GOP efforts to pass government funding bills annually with less than 2 weeks left until a shutdown.
A majority of House Republicans cannot agree on a temporary funding fix to keep the Government open beyond Sept. 30.
The government will be funded through October with a partisan stopgap that was announced on Sunday. It was negotiated between two rival factions of the GOP — the Freedom Caucus, which is more conservative and the Main Street Caucus, which is more moderate. The measure would cut certain domestic expenditures while excluding national defense programs. The measure contains harsh border security measures, but excludes new money for Ukraine.
This measure still lacks the necessary support to pass in the chaos of Republicans. It’s also unclear what the House will be able to pass as a shutdown is looming.
Democrats oppose the Pentagon financing bill. Republicans loaded it with conservative provisions aimed at limiting abortion access, medical care for transgender soldiers, and diversity efforts. McCarthy could lose a few votes in the Senate on this bill or any other.
McCarthy’s bill has no chance to pass a Democratic Senate, even if he can keep his members united.
House Rules Committee chair Tom Cole (R.Okla.) complained that a group of right-wing legislators were blocking the Pentagon bill by demanding the bill to be written with conservative social provisions.
“This is not good legislation.” Cole called it blackmail. Tell me, “hey, there’s… nothing you don’t like about this bill.
He said, “There is no justification.”
Garcia claimed to have spoken with most of the holdouts before the vote. He criticized the five defections, but predicted that Republicans would ultimately reach a compromise to pass the bill.
Garcia said, “I believe that as a conference we should lock ourselves up in a large room and not leave until we figure out the way forward.” We need to provide a platform for people to voice their concerns, similar to Festivus. We’ll bring the aluminum pole in and everyone can have a discussion.
