House GOP hammers out internal deal as shutdown looms

Two key factions of the House Republican conference reached agreement on a bill to avoid a government shutdown for another month, along with much of a House GOP bill to change policies at the border and cut discretionary spending for the duration.

Hope to bring Continuing resolution (CR) The deal was drafted to the House floor this week by leaders in the Main Street Caucus and the House Freedom Caucus. But even if it passes the House, it faces slim odds of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate and being signed into law by the White House.

The deal would avoid an Oct. 1 shutdown by funding the government through Oct. 31, keeping the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs at current levels while cutting all discretionary spending by 8 percent. Along with that, it would include the House GOP’s HR 2 border crackdown bill — minus its provisions about requiring E-Verify.

It does not include disaster relief funding or funding for Ukraine from the White House’s supplemental funding request in August, which was proposed to be attached to the continuing resolution.

In addition, there is an agreement to pass an appropriations bill to fund the Department of Defense (DOD) through fiscal year 2024 along with the CR bill, the GOP source said. House GOP leadership was forced to push plans to put the DOD bill on the House floor last week, as hard-line conservatives plan to sink a procedural vote to allow its consideration in opposition to demanding steep cuts in all other appropriations bills.

The CR bill is led by Reps. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.); Dusty Johnson (RS.D.), president of the Main Street Caucus, a pragmatic conservative group; Scott Perry (R-Pa.), chairman of the hardline conservative House Freedom Caucus; Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.), Vice Chair of the Main Street Caucus; Chip Roy (R-Texas); and Kelly Armstrong (RN.D.).

Congressional leaders from both parties and chambers aim to pass a continuing resolution to buy more time to complete the appropriations process through regular order, which includes passing and signing all 12 appropriations bills into law. However, both chambers are far behind: they have only passed one measure, and the Senate has passed none.

But the clock is ticking: The debt ceiling deal signed in June called for a 1 percent cut across the board if all 12 appropriations bills aren’t passed by Jan. 1, 2025.

However, the two chambers mark their bills at different stages, making House vs. The Senate set the scene for a showdown that could bring Congress back to the brink of a shutdown.

The Senate marks its bills according to the limits set in the debt ceiling agreement About $14 billion in additional emergency fundingWhile the House advances at a much lower level than the debt ceiling agreement.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) indicated on Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures” earlier Sunday that he would bring a defense funding bill to the floor, and he expressed hope of reaching a deal this week.

“This weekend I gave them an opportunity to do this job, and we’re going to get it to the ground, win or lose, and show the American people who’s going to be in the Department of Defense, who’s going to be in our military, and who’s going to give them a pay raise and that we can get the awareness out. Who will make sure,” McCarthy said.