House GOP steps up spending bill | The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

WASHINGTON — House Republicans got off to a faster and more united start this year on funding the federal government, passing four of a dozen annual spending bills by the end of June, compared with none at the same time last year when the new majority had a rocky start.

However, it cannot be denied that the fight over spending will continue.

All four bills that have passed the House so far have drawn veto threats from President Joe Biden’s administration and faced widespread opposition from Democrats, and in their current form they have no chance of passing the Senate. That would mean a protracted, months-long fight that would likely require one or more stopgap spending bills to keep the federal government fully open when the new fiscal year begins on Oct. 1.

House Republicans plan to pass dozens of spending bills one at a time rather than combining them into one omnibus bill, which they say leads to overspending and misguided government policy because such bills are harder to amend or stop without risking a government shutdown.

Earlier this year, Speaker Mike Johnson split discretionary spending into two bills. Congress finally passed them in March, nearly halfway through the fiscal year. Now, House Republicans are looking to move faster on spending bills for fiscal year 2025.

The House GOP momentum is likely temporary. They have chosen to go their own way rather than work with Democrats on legislation. GOP leaders have rejected key aspects of the agreement that then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy hammered out with Biden, which introduced strict spending limits as part of a deal to avoid a crippling default.

The agreement called for a 1% increase in defense and other spending over the next fiscal year beginning October 1. But House Republicans decided to pursue a course in which only defense spending would increase by that amount. Nondefense spending would be cut by about 6%, rejecting adjustments agreed to by McCarthy and the White House that would have allowed for more spending other than that specified in the debt ceiling bill.

Rep. Tom Cole, the Republican chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, argued that House Republicans are being guided by what was in the debt ceiling bill. It didn’t include the entire Biden-McCarthy deal. Negotiators agreed to reclaim funds approved outside the appropriations process to support nondefense spending and keep it relatively steady. For example, negotiators agreed to cut $20 billion from the IRS and put that money elsewhere.

The White House says that “instead of honoring the agreement” and engaging in a bipartisan process, “House Republicans are once again wasting time passing partisan bills that would result in deep cuts” in spending on law enforcement, education, housing and other programs.

Cole says Democrats took the GOP line by voting with eight Republicans to remove McCarthy from office.

“If you think you can get rid of the person you made a deal with and the deal stays the same, maybe you should reconsider,” Cole said.

Meanwhile, House Republicans are adding dozens of policy mandates to spending bills that have been dead in the water since the beginning in the Senate and the Democratic-led White House. For example, the House defense spending bill would not allow the Pentagon to reimburse troops for abortion-related travel.

Democrats say the House Republicans’ actions have failed to learn from last year. Any spending bill that passes into law will require bipartisan support. They have described the House’s actions on spending bills as a waste of time because the bills have no chance in the Senate.

“Extreme MAGA Republicans are leading us toward a government shutdown,” Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries warned.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray and the committee’s top Republican, Senator Susan Collins, spoke behind the scenes, negotiating total spending for defense and nondefense programs.

Both countries intend to exceed the 1% increase in defense spending and other goals planned under the agreement reached by Biden and McCarthy.

Increasing the defense budget is a priority for some Republicans, but Murray is pushing for parity “because the investments in our families, in our economy, in the safety and success of our communities are no less important than the investments in the Pentagon,” she said.

The committee is due to consider the first three spending bills on Thursday, and also set the maximum amount of money to be allocated to each of the 12 spending bills.