Conservatives’ New Warnings Put Squeeze on GOP Leaders

WASHINGTON—House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s streak of getting must-pass bills through the chamber looks increasingly at risk, with fiscal conservatives flashing new warning signs that they could delay or derail his plans on government spending.

Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus and their allies warned Tuesday that they weren’t yet ready to support a pair of spending bills that are scheduled to be on the floor this week, saying that they want to see revised versions that House Republican leaders are putting together. GOP leaders have been in talks with fiscal conservatives since last week in hopes of identifying new spending cuts.

“We’re sounding the warning call, reminding our leadership: You need the votes,” said Rep. Andy Biggs (R., Ariz.), referring to the House Republicans’ narrow 222-212 majority. “We’re begging our leadership. Listen to us. Do not take us on a further irresponsible spending path.”

Rep. Scott Perry (R., Pa.), the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said members had “a lot of outstanding questions.”

Congress is in its final week in session before a six-week recess that spans all of August, and is pivoting to the first two of 12 spending bills after McCarthy successfully passed a string of must-pass bills, including one to suspend the debt ceiling.

Because of the narrow nature of the GOP’s House majority, and Democratic opposition, any small bloc of Republicans can stop a bill from moving forward by voting against a procedural step called the rule, in which the House approves the conditions for a bill to come to the floor, or against the legislation itself.

When lawmakers return in September, the House will have only 12 legislative days in session before a current law funding the government expires. Any obstruction could help lead to a partial government shutdown in October if no spending deal or short-term extension passes the GOP-controlled House and Democratic-controlled Senate.

Conservatives, who oppose new taxes, broadly want to constrain spending to slow the growth of the federal debt, which now stands at over $32 trillion, after several Covid-19 relief rounds and continued annual deficits.

“We should not fear a government shutdown,” said Rep. Bob Good (R., Va.). “Most of what we do up here is bad anyway.”

As they work to keep the conference united, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R., La.) and McCarthy have also been trying to bring on board lawmakers such as Rep. Victoria Spartz (R., Ind.), who said last week that she would vote against any rule until her concerns about further reining in and overseeing spending were addressed.

“There’s a lot of talk here,” Spartz said. “Only actions matter.” A spokesman for Spartz said Tuesday that he was unaware that any such spending commitments had been made.

In June, a group of conservatives staged a surprise weeklong protest in which they refused to allow any votes on the floor, the first time a rule was blocked in two decades. That dispute was resolved after McCarthy said he would take a new look at their concerns, leading to GOP appropriators setting their spending levels below the caps established in the debt-ceiling law, with his blessing. But some critics say they still aren’t satisfied.

Of the bills this week, the version of the agriculture bill that cleared the Appropriations Committee would appropriate $25.3 billion, and the military construction and veterans bill would appropriate about $155.7 billion in discretionary funding for veterans as well as for military construction and family housing, in addition to mandatory funding. Together, those two measures account for a small slice of the total $1.47 trillion in net spending that the House Appropriations Committee has approved for fiscal 2024. That is less than the $1.59 trillion cap set under a bipartisan debt-ceiling law that cleared Congress in early June and in line with fiscal 2022 discretionary spending levels.

Some conservatives worry that backing the two bills would signal support for the broader spending plans, which they complain rely on sleight-of-hand budgeting maneuvers to show budget reductions. The cuts won’t change the trajectory of future spending, they argue, because they don’t lower the levels from which all future increases will be determined, but instead would allow for a gross total of $1.59 trillion in spending in fiscal 2024, paired with $115 billion in cuts labeled “rescissions” from other buckets including for the Internal Revenue Service.

“We want the ‘22 levels, no rescissions, no smoke and mirrors for the American people,” said Rep. Ralph Norman (R., S.C.).

Other Republicans also worry that the House GOP leadership might not stick to its commitment to approving spending at fiscal 2022 levels, and say that they want to see final versions of all 12 bills before deciding whether to support the first two measures. Currently, the House Appropriations Committee has passed only 10 of the 12 bills.

“Leadership believes that they’re going to be able to trickle these out two at a time, three a week, four a week,” said Rep. Matt Rosendale (R., Mont.). “That’s just not going to be feasible, because we will never be able to see what the total spending is until the very end.”

Republicans will need to be largely unified to clear the measures through the 222-212 House, as Democrats oppose the bills. The White House issued formal veto threats Monday, highlighting that the House measures cut spending below the level set in the debt-ceiling deal. Once the House does pass its measures, they will need to be reconciled with the eventual Senate versions.

While the bipartisan debt-ceiling law with Democrats also included rescissions, the GOP appropriations plan pulls back more cash by turning to previously appropriated but still unspent funds.

McCarthy has expressed confidence that he will get the appropriations bills passed. “We will get our bills passed like I said we will,” he said.

Other House Republicans say that the conservatives are being unrealistic, given that many of the appropriations bills as currently written already would impose large cuts.

“They want the cuts without the rescissions—that ain’t gonna happen,” said Rep. Mike Simpson (R., Idaho), who is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee’s Interior and Environment subcommittee. He said that enacting cuts without turning to the one-off strategies for reducing spending would amount to a 36% funding cut in his bill, compared with the 10% cut he already has to live with.

—Simon J. Levien contributed to this article.

Write to Siobhan Hughes at [email protected]