House ADJOURNS Despite PASSING Spending Bills
House Speaker Mike Johnson pledged when he took office that he would not send members home before they completed their work on spending legislation, but the House has left Washington for the past month and a half after failing to approve their final set of measures.
During the GOP’s hunt for a new House Speaker last year, Mr. Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, wrote a letter outlining the traits he believed the speaker should have. This letter surfaced again this week following Republican leadership’s cancellation of votes and sending lawmakers home.
With the disclaimer that lawmakers would “not break… unless all 12 appropriations bills have passed the House” in August, he outlined a plan for passing funding bills for the fiscal year 2025 in the letter.
“I am confident we can work together to accomplish that objective quickly, in a manner that delivers on our principled commitments to rein in wasteful spending and put our country back on a path to fiscal responsibility. It will be challenging work, but we can and will do it.”
Last week, Republicans attempted to approve four budget bills, but three of them were removed from the schedule due to internal conflicts that have dogged the party during its tenure in the House.
Another illustration of Mr. Johnson’s struggles to regulate his boisterous conference is the last-minute change of plans. A few Republican appropriators expressed frustration about the measures being withdrawn and the votes being canceled.
The 12 spending bills, according to a Republican congressman from Montana Ryan Zinke, are “the most conservative bills ever” to come out of the Appropriations Committee, but some of his colleagues don’t think they’re good enough.
Mr. Johnson has a little window of time to complete spending work before the funding deadline because the House won’t be back in session until September 9.
Since House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a Republican from Louisiana, saw his ambitious spending program thwarted, many politicians anticipate that Mr. Johnson will once again rely on a continuing resolution, a short-term funding fix, to keep the government operating until the issues are handled.
In an attempt to seize complete control over the budgetary process, conservatives are promoting a financing patch that would last until next year. They are banking on Republicans to win the House, Senate, and White House.
A stopgap that lasts past the election on November 5 is preferred by the majority of appropriators, but it would necessitate that lawmakers complete their task this year.
There is still hope among some Republicans that the seven remaining spending bills, some of which have always been hard to get Republican support for, can pass.
Although the Labor, Health, Human Services, and Education funding package was scheduled to be discussed on the floor the following week, Representative Robert Aderholt expressed optimism that it would pass despite acknowledging that it was “one of the more difficult ones.”
