Battle lines form in House amid scramble to meet second budget deadline

WASHINGTON (CN) — Congress is once again racing the clock to reach a deal on sweeping budget legislation that would sidestep the second government shutdown threat in as many weeks — but some lawmakers are angling to burn any compromise to the ground.

Congressional appropriators are still working with the White House on a package of proposed spending bills that would fully fund the bulk of government programs through the end of the fiscal year. Lawmakers have already approved a separate tranche of budget legislation which handled appropriations for just a handful of federal agencies.

As negotiations on the latest round of six budget bills drags on this week, Congress is pushing up against a fiscal deadline. Stopgap funding for this bundle of federal programs, approved earlier this year, is slated to run out Friday night. If lawmakers can’t reach a consensus in time they could be once again faced with the prospect of a shutdown.

Appropriators have signaled that they have mostly worked out the kinks in the forthcoming budget package, but things appear to have stalled on proposed funding for the Department of Homeland Security — a predictable development given the important role immigration and border security serves to play in the upcoming presidential election.

Although the proposed budget legislation has yet to be made public, some Republican lawmakers are already railing against a possible compromise, arguing that the GOP will be forced to sacrifice some of its more hardline border policy demands.

Writing in a letter to their colleagues Monday, members of the hardline conservative House Freedom Caucus urged Republicans to reject a homeland security appropriations bill.

“At some point, border security has to be more than something aspirational that we simply message on,” wrote the lawmakers led by Freedom Caucus chair and Virginia Representative Bob Good. “Is there no threshold of harm to our nation for which we would refuse to fund the government perpetrating the invasion?”

Good argued that if Republicans signed onto a compromise bill they would be “actively funding” what GOP lawmakers have long framed as the Biden administration’s loose immigration policies. The lawmaker also drew on claims from some on the right, presented largely without evidence, that the White House’s border security posture is “intentional and rooted in radical progressive Democrats’ desire to fundamentally remake America.”

The House should scuttle any compromise measure, the Freedom Caucus leader told his colleagues, and lawmakers should only accept an appropriations bill that incorporates language from the Republican-led Secure the Border Act, which the lower chamber passed last year.

Good also acknowledged that some Republicans may opt in on the proposed spending package because it funds other vital government programs, such as the Defense Department.

“[Many] will rationalize a ‘yes’ vote ‘for the troops,’” he wrote.

But approving a compromise measure funding defense programs would provide tacit support to Biden administration policies that Republicans have long opposed, Good said — pointing in particular to a Pentagon policy aimed at helping fund travel for servicemembers traveling across state lines for abortion care.

“Even setting aside the border, the power of the purse should also be used to stop the radical politicization of the Department of Defense,” Good wrote.

Despite the Freedom Caucus’s insistence that Republicans abandon any possible budget compromise, it is unclear whether Good’s haranguing will sway enough GOP lawmakers to put the appropriations bills in any jeopardy.

House Republicans’ right flank have repeatedly stood in the way in recent months as Congress worked to approve full-year spending. Members of the Freedom Caucus have routinely opposed efforts to keep the government running through a series of short-term spending bills known as continuing resolutions, and some have long balked at the prospect of negotiating with Democrats.

In any event, lawmakers will be pressed for time once the proposed appropriations package is released. Thanks to procedural constraints, the House will only be able to vote on the legislation on Thursday at the earliest. That timeline gives the Senate only a short turnaround to review and pass the bundle of bills before Friday’s deadline.

Follow @BenjaminSWeiss

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