McCarthy and allies annoyed by defense bill holdouts.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Veteran Appropriators Express Frustration with Conservative Holdouts
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and veteran appropriators expressed their frustration Wednesday with conservative holdouts after being forced to punt on a procedural motion on the annual defense appropriations bill.
Finding an agreement on spending in a divided Congress is a difficult process in and of itself, but it is being made even more difficult as House Republicans can’t find agreement within their own conference, let alone with Senate Democrats or the White House.
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House leaders pushed the rule vote on the defense appropriations bill to another day because they didn’t have the votes to pass it. But McCarthy said the holdouts won’t tell leadership what in the bill they actually opposed.
When asked if that was frustrating, McCarthy replied, “Yep, yep.”
“Welcome to my world,” he said.
Appropriators are especially unhappy about holding up defense funding.
Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA), chairman of the defense appropriations subcommittee, said everyone in the Republican conference wants to cut spending but “we’re not being able to balance the federal budget on discretionary spending.”
“It’s frustrating, I’m frustrated more than anybody,” Calvert said. “You know, in my mind, the first obligation of the U.S. government is to defend the country, and we need to get the defense appropriation bill done. So every day we delay doing this sends the wrong message to our friends and our enemies.”
These holdouts are also preventing the House from passing any of its remaining 11 appropriations bills for a litany of reasons. A source familiar with the process said there’s very little consistency to what those reasons are.
Some members have expressed their desire for McCarthy to commit in writing to an agreed-upon top-line spending number for all 12 appropriations bills before they can agree to vote for them. Others have demanded policy priorities be included in the appropriations, such as border security measures. Some have demanded both.
“I just think the demands made by a wing of our caucus that wants spending at a certain level and won’t accept anything different, and they weren’t happy with the debt ceiling agreement, now they’re taking their angst out on appropriations. I think they’ve decided this is the hill on which to wage battle,” said Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR), an appropriations subcommittee chairman. “I don’t want to judge them terribly, but it’s obvious that what they want is not going to become law.”
Womack said that the recalcitrant members keep moving the goalposts on what they want to see in appropriations bills, and every time they meet a demand, they want something extra.
But, while he doesn’t want to accuse all the holdouts of “nefarious stuff,” he believes a handful of them are just doing this to spite McCarthy.
“They just enjoy making his life miserable, and man, that’s not the way. Even if you disagree with the speaker, he’s the speaker. And we should be doing everything we can as a governing majority to get our work done,” Womack said.
And where things are heading, the work won’t get done, and a shutdown is likely.
Some lawmakers believe a shutdown could play to the advantage of House Republicans in negotiations with the Democratic-controlled Senate and White House.
Because of this, McCarthy said it’s been difficult to negotiate with some of them.
“It’s hard to be able to win the argument you want if you don’t pay the bills,” McCarthy said. “It’s difficult because I don’t see how you win in a shutdown. I’ve witnessed them before. Look, you work through the system to solve problems, and you’re stronger when you have one House, and you can advocate for the policies you want, and you pass that. But by saying you’re going to be stronger because you don’t pass something and then go get a shutdown. That’s not a strong position.”
McCarthy also doesn’t have the luxury of reaching across the aisle without risking his ouster by conservatives via a motion to vacate the chair.
“The sooner Kevin works with Democrats, he’s done in the eyes of some of those hold-offs,” Womack said. “Now, I would like to believe that we’re sane enough not to go there. But that’s a threat.”
Compromise and bipartisanship used to be the norm in the appropriations process; now, it’s a risk to McCarthy’s speakership.
“The kind of mentality that’s been created here is that if you get Democratic votes on something, then it must be bad,” Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID), an appropriations subcommittee chairman, said. “The word compromise has become something that people accuse you of. That’s the art of politics.”
Instead, the House is being forced to accede to the demands of a select few.
“I love this institution that our forefathers left us, and I don’t want to see it destroyed,” Simpson said. “But I think it’s headed that direction.”
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