As the Republicans struggle to find a way to finance the government, Speaker Kevin McCarthy is walking back on his promise to withdraw Ukraine aid from a major military spending measure.
After receiving pressure from fellow Republicans, the California Republican has reversed course and will now let the roughly $300 million to remain in the Pentagon bill.
Nonetheless, McCarthy stated on Saturday in the Capitol that the bill will move forward with the Ukraine aid intact, claiming that it would be too hard to remove due to the Republicans’ funding approach of bringing the Defence bill to the floor alongside other legislation. After two previous failures in recent weeks, this move casts new question on whether or not the Pentagon budget bill will be debated at all.
McCarthy told reporters, “It became too difficult to do that, so we’re leaving it in” in reference to the Ukraine money.
A vote to begin debate on four government budget bills, including the Defence, State, Homeland Security, and an agriculture bill, is scheduled for Tuesday, and Republicans are expected to approve it. This would be McCarthy’s most recent effort to get his party’s financing bills moving.
Whether they have the votes is unclear, despite the most recent manoeuvring on Ukraine aid. Even if Republicans initiate discussion and pass one of the four measures, the shutdown still will begin on October 1.
Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) emphasised the unpredictability by calling his Republican colleagues and urging them to let leadership know if they plan to vote against bringing the measures to the floor, since they don’t conduct a formal vote check for procedural actions.
Rep. Erin Houchin (R-Ind.), a member of the Rules Committee, said on Tuesday of the vote to begin discussion, “We’ll see if we get there.”
The yo-yoing on the Ukraine money highlights the day-to-day fluidity of the House GOP’s funding approach, which has almost no space to manoeuvre due to their tiny majority and a spate of lawmakers’ absences.
To give one specific example, Republicans sought to win over Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who voted against beginning debate on the Defence bill earlier this week, by eliminating funding for the Ukrainian government.
The bill’s passage to the floor was part of a bigger compromise reached with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and other hardliners, which also included financial increases for the State Department and other agencies. Greene’s position became more complicated as a result, as the State measure included money for the Ukraine. Given their interdependence, the Georgia Republican is likely to oppose bringing either bill to a vote in the Senate or House regardless of what happens with financing for the Department of Defence.
I anticipate a “no” vote from her on this regulation. That’s why I tried to find a solution that would work for everyone involved. McCarthy told the press, “But this one, it didn’t work out.
Republicans will now allow a vote on the floor to remove the Ukraine-related monies from both the Defence and State bills, virtually insuring that the spending will stay in with the cooperation of Democrats, rather than removing the aid for Ukraine from the Defence measure and voting on it separately.
Republicans are attempting to convince holdouts like Gaetz to support the short-term spending patch that will be needed to avoid a shutdown if they can get some of the larger funding legislation passed.
Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont. ), one of the holdouts, repeated his opposition to the short-term bill, also known as a continuing resolution, while speaking with reporters after Saturday’s conference call with McCarthy’s friends.
McCarthy has proposed a financing plan with a 30-day extension, a Republican border bill, and the establishment of a debt committee. The House needs additional time to enact full-year funding measures and negotiate with the White House and the Senate, so during Saturday’s call with his members, Ryan proposed extending that funding patch to 45 days.
After hearing that enough conservatives publicly oppose a 30-day stop-gap funding bill that cannot pass without help from Democrats, McCarthy made the suggestion. Some GOP holdouts have argued that the House should focus on passing those larger funding bills, even though doing so would guarantee a shutdown.
Garret Graves (R-La.), a McCarthy friend, criticised the position as a “stupid strategy,” saying that they would not be able to pass all the necessary spending legislation before the end of the month.
“Right now we have a situation where the arsonists are complaining that their house is on fire. Two, they’ll want credit for extinguishing the blaze. Third, they’ll launch a GoFundMe page to collect donations, Graves added.
