House conservatives on Thursday morning defeated a procedural vote on a Pentagon funding bill, preventing the legislation from moving forward in the chamber for the second time this week and dealing another embarrassing blow to Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California). Six Republicans joined Democrats in voting against the rule for the Pentagon appropriations bill, which was enough to defeat the effort. The final vote was 212-216. Representatives Dan Bishop (North Carolina), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Georgia), Matt Rosendale (Montana), Andy Biggs (Arizona), Eli Crane (Arizona) and Tom Cole (Oklahoma) voted against advancing the measure. Cole flipped his vote to “no” at the last moment, which will allow him to bring up the bill again later.
The failed vote came after an almost three-hour meeting Wednesday night that focused both on long-term spending bills and the more immediate task of avoiding a government shutdown after September 30th. During the closed-door meeting, a majority of the House Republican conference found consensus around more than $1.5 trillion in discretionary spending for the upcoming fiscal year. And while they reported progress on a bill to keep the government open in the short term, a plan to avoid a shutdown was not finalized. Hard liners previously voted against the rule amid calls for steeper spending cuts and frustration that they had not yet received topline spending levels for all 12 appropriations bills. But during the conference meeting last night, McCarthy pitched members on a new proposal for a continuing resolution (CR) that also included a commitment that the remaining fiscal year 2024 appropriations bills would be marked up at $1.526 levels. The CR proposal would also fund the government through October 31st at fiscal year 2022 levels, include a bulk of the conference’s border bill, and create a commission on the national debt to examine mandatory and discretionary spending. The Speaker set Thursday’s vote after two conservatives who opposed the initial effort to advance the legislation change their stances. Representatives Ralph Norman (R-Soth Carolina) and Ken Buck (R-Colorado) — who opposed the procedural vote on Tuesday — said they would vote for the rule when it came to the floor again on Thursday.
The House is now in recess as Republican leadership regroups and works on next steps. But the stakes remain incredibly high to avert a government shutdown since House Republicans are just starting a process to fund the government for the coming fiscal year and roughly half a dozen holdouts remain vehemently opposed to funding the government in the short term.
The Senate is considering the nomination of General Randy A. George to be Chief of Staff of the Army and the nomination of General Eric M. Smith to be Commandant of the Marine Corps.
