Familiar funding limbo troubles House GOP

The House of Representatives has voted its spending troubles away—for a whole 87 days.

On Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., brought a short-term spending package to the floor, enlisting the help of Democrats to avoid a partial government shutdown that would have otherwise gone into effect at the end of the day Monday. The Continuing Appropriations and Extension Act passed by a 341-82 vote. Every Democrat voted in favor of the bill. All of the opposition came from Republicans.

The bill extends the government’s current spending levels until Dec. 20 in lieu of approving a complete funding plan for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. It also provides an additional $230 million to the Secret Service to address security concerns in the wake of two assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said the extension sets up Republicans to fail.

“Dec. 20—that’s the strategic downside,” Roy said. “What do you think will happen at Christmas? We know what happens at Christmas. When we set these fights up that expire in December, America loses. We could have avoided that, had Republicans united around a plan to get it past Christmas.”

Fiscal conservatives like Roy have long railed against short-term spending extensions that push past Congress’ fiscal deadlines and prolong what they see as wasteful spending levels. Worse still, Roy believes it moves the House further away from conservatives’ goal of returning to a more transparent process of approving individual appropriations bills instead of an all-at-once omnibus spending package.

Roy would rather have a government shutdown than go there.

“I certainly think we ought to—at some point—leverage the power of the purse to extract change instead of running into the corner and cowering and crying ‘oh no, we can’t have a shutdown.’ Either use the power of the purse or don’t,” Roy said.

For other conservatives like Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., the current funding struggle is a reminder of the high cost Republicans paid just to come full circle. Last October, eight Republicans voted with Democrats to remove then–House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., over his inability to secure spending cuts. The change in leadership has not produced the results they had demanded, but Massie doesn’t think Republicans will call for Johnson’s job—yet.

“I think what we do in December will probably determine his fate,” Massie said. “There’s an election coming so nobody wants to rock the boat right now.”

Moments later Massie added he believes the only way Johnson has a chance to stay in the role of speaker is if former President Donald Trump comes to his defense and endorses him. A handful of Republicans already tried to remove Johnson once earlier this year in an effort led by Massie and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.

Rep. Marcus Molinaro, R-N.Y. doesn’t want to hear talk of booting Johnson, especially not before an election—and not after one, either.

“I think Speaker Johnson has done what is necessary and we ought to be coming back not focused on internal politics but how we get appropriations bills done in a way that respects taxpayers,” Molinaro said. “We should get through this election, saying to the American people that we’re focused on border security, driving down crime and making our community safe and making our economy work for middle-class families.”

For now, lawmakers are headed back to their districts for the October recess ahead of the general election on Nov. 5. They won’t be back to Capitol Hill until mid-November. They will be in session for just 20 days before they need to pass some form of spending legislation or face a renewed threat of a shutdown.