House Republican leaders Wednesday punted plans to bring up a Department of Defense appropriations bill amid hardline conservative pressure on overall spending levels that threatened to continue to sink the legislation. Leaders had planned to bring the rule for the legislation, a procedural vote that outlines the parameters for its consideration, to the floor on Wednesday. However, by midday, Republican leadership said the first planned vote series would not include that vote — and eventually punted it altogether, canceling a second planned vote series. A handful of staunchly conservative lawmakers announced they would not vote to move the defense funding bill forward because of an unmet demand they made of leadership months ago. Several members of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus said they have yet to receive a top-line number for how much all 12 appropriations bills would cost once passed, and where offsets to curtail spending would be made across the 11 proposals the House has yet to consider on the floor. That top-line number may never come. The House Appropriations Committee already has not been able to overcome competing demands between moderate and far-right Republicans on the labor and justice appropriation bills, which have historically been the most controversial proposals to complete. As a result, fulfilling the Freedom Caucus’s demands — including passing all 12 appropriation bills individually — may be impossible. Some far-right lawmakers, including those in the Freedom Caucus, have warned that how Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) threads the delicate balance of their demands may result in a motion to vacate him from the speakership. In addition to political opposition, several absences within the conference — including Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana), who is out on extended leave battling cancer — are making the math tricky for Republicans. Complicating it further is the expected retirement of Representative Chris Stewart (R-Utah) later this week, which will bring the Republicans’ already razor-thin majority down to four. His replacement, generally expected to be a Republican, would not arrive in the House until at least late November.
The Senate Appropriations Committee has approved all 12 of its bills with bipartisan support, and lawmakers are expected to approve three of them through the Senate next week. House Republicans have acknowledged that if they fail to pass a significant appropriations bill — or even more than one — they would potentially concede the upper hand to the Senate in negotiations.
The House is expected to wrap up its work week today and met at 10:00 A.M. for morning hour and noon for legislative business and will consider H.R. 1435 – Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act.
The Senate is also expected to wrap up for the week today and has resumed consideration of the motion to proceed to H.R.4366, Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024.
