House conservatives: No more big, beautiful bills

After almost two years under the leadership of House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., fiscal conservatives say it’s time for him to deliver on the promise that made him speaker: fixing the process for funding the government.

But on Tuesday, that process hit a snag when a handful of conservatives opposed a procedural vote in the House to advance the second of 12 annual funding bills. The bill, which would have funded the Department of Defense for 2026, failed in a 196-223 vote with 13 Republicans opposing the measure. Congress has until Oct. 1 to pass the remaining 10 bills or risk a partial government shutdown.

Although some of the reasons it failed had little to do with the spending legislation itself, Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., didn’t mince words when asked if the results concerned him.

“Yes,” Amodei said. “We’re at a point where there needs to be a bit of—let’s take a deep breath.”

Having used up time and political capital to pass the bulk of President Donald Trump’s legislative package earlier this month, House Republicans find themselves with a tighter timetable—and higher expectations for their leaders—when it comes to how Congress funds the government this year.

Moments after the vote, Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., said that he voted against the package because Johnson rushed the legislation to the floor without giving members time to review it, tied the appropriations bill to other pieces of legislation, and did not open up the bill to amendments.

“It would be nice if we could have the opportunity to actually offer amendments,” Biggs said. “So there’s a whole myriad of problems procedurally with it, as well.”

A handful of other members echoed Bigg’s frustration about the process surrounding the bill’s consideration.

Fiscal conservatives in Congress, especially those in the House Freedom Caucus, have long decried the use of all-at-once omnibus spending packages that have funded the government’s needs for much of the past 40 years. In their view, these multithousand-page bills lead to decreased transparency, limit member input, and make it almost impossible to reduce the nation’s expenses. When former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., looked poised to do more of the same, eight Republicans (led by then-Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.) voted with Democrats to unseat McCarthy in October 2023—the first time Congress forcibly removed a sitting speaker from the role.

Despite promises for change and efforts to advance the 12 appropriations bills—a funding process known as “regular order”—Johnson used omnibus packages to fund the government in 2024 and in 2025. Amid a divided government last year, Johnson struggled to make headway on his commitment to regular order, frequently finding his efforts stonewalled by the Senate, where Democrats held a majority.

Now in the majority, Republicans will still need Democratic help to get their bills passed in the Senate, but members like Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., believe that Republicans have a winning hand—and, in particular, a winning leader in President Donald Trump.

“He’s so good at persuading people, he is so good at bringing people together,” Norman said.

Earlier this month, Trump helped persuade as many as 20 Republican holdouts to vote in favor of the Big Beautiful Bill Act—a piece of legislation that seemed threatened by disunity among Republican ranks just one day ahead of its passage. Its near-miraculous success displayed the kind of consensus-building Norman alluded to.

But spending is a different story.

Unlike the party-line vote for the Big Beautiful Bill, Republicans will need the help of at least eight Democrats in the Senate to pass each of the 12 appropriations bills. Republicans currently hold 53 seats in the chamber and must clear the 60-vote threshold needed to advance legislation over the threat of a filibuster.

Democrats can derail Republican plans by stalling negotiations, forcing Republicans to consider alternative means to fund the government if the process drags on past the start of a new fiscal year in October.

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, believes that Republicans can avoid that outcome by negotiating in good faith across the aisle. He expressed confidence in his Democratic counterpart in the House, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the ranking member on the House Appropriations Committee.

“We’ve negotiated a lot of bills over here,” Cole said. “I’ve found them to be fair negotiators, tough negotiators, but fair. I think [DeLauro] is one of the best legislators I’ve ever worked with. I know she wants to get a final settlement and get passage of these bills.”

Cole declined to comment on what role, if any, DeLauro would fill in communicating with her fellow Democrats in the Senate.

Before enlisting Democratic help, Republicans will need to first consolidate their own support for their spending packages. Amodei, the congressman from Nevada, said that instances like the failed vote on Tuesday don’t inspire confidence in a return to regular order.

In his view, those demanding it the most are getting in their own way.

“Here’s the problem,” Amodei said. “A lot of those people want regular order. OK. But you’re taking the [bill] down? Well, guess what? Either you really want regular order, or you start having conversations like—do appropriations really matter anymore?”
“I’m trying to be as nice as I can,” Amodei added.

With the October deadline just three months away, I asked Cole if he was optimistic about getting the job done this time around.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” Cole said. “We’ll go from there.”