House GOP hardliners may derail spending bills.

A group of 21 hard-line conservative House Republicans has issued a warning to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Monday. They made it clear that they would not support any spending bills that do not include satisfactory cuts.

With Congress set to resume on Tuesday before the August recess, these lawmakers expressed their concerns about appropriations bills that could lead to increased spending levels.

Their letter to McCarthy stated, “We plan to vote against any appropriations bills designed to achieve the approximately $1.586 trillion top-line spending level—roughly equal to the spending caps agreed to within the debt ceiling deal and representing a mere 1 percent reduction from Democrats’ egregious post-COVID spending level.”

The lawmakers emphasized their expectations for baseline appropriations to match the FY 2022 level, without relying on “rescissions to increase discretionary spending above that top-line.”

They further stated, “Rescissions are useful in reducing spending and we encourage their use, but we cannot support using them to shift funding to the very bureaucrats implementing the Biden agenda at roughly current levels of spending, thereby enshrining and continuing Democrats’ reckless inflationary spending.”

According to the lawmakers, the proposed spending levels closely align with the cap set by the debt ceiling deal, which “was supported by more Democrats than Republicans” and was opposed by the signatories.

In addition, the lawmakers urged Mr. McCarthy to withhold consideration of any appropriations measure on the House floor until the House Appropriations Committee passes all 12 annual appropriations bills. Unlike previous House speakers, Mr. McCarthy has pledged to pass all 12 regular spending bills in the House.

Furthermore, the lawmakers criticized a previous “lame duck” omnibus spending bill and urged the House speaker to publicly reject the possibility of an omnibus appropriations measure or supplemental Ukraine appropriations bill.

They concluded by saying, “We look forward to working with [Mr. McCarthy] to ensure that neither happens.”

Push for Clear Leadership and Spending Cuts

The lawmakers stressed their dissatisfaction with the lack of progress beyond hearings and “messaging bills that ultimately fail in the Senate.” They argued against modest spending limits, particularly in light of recent record inflationary spending levels.

The signatories of the letter have the potential to derail any GOP speaker’s plans if their demands for spending cuts are not met.