The spending showdown that brought the government to the brink of a partial shutdown this week is being fueled by Republicans in Congress, who, after failing in their efforts to cut federal funding, are still clinging to the dictates of right-wing politics.
House Republicans loaded their spending bills with hundreds of partisan policy orders, the vast majority of which had no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate or being signed by President Biden. They include measures to target various parts of Mr. Biden’s agenda, including one to limit access to abortion drugs and another to restrict the Department of Veterans Affairs from labeling veterans deemed mentally incompetent for a federally required background check for the purchase of a weapon.
With just four days to go before funding for about a quarter of the government runs out, some of these issues are emerging as major sticking points in negotiations to reach a deal to keep the money flowing. Republicans also continue to seek to cut federal programs aimed at providing nutrition assistance to low-income families as well as women and infants.
Complicating the picture for Speaker Mike Johnson, who met at the White House on Tuesday with President Biden and other top congressional leaders, Republicans themselves have been divided over what to push for in the spending talks. Ultraconservative lawmakers who rarely support spending legislation have been the loudest voices in favor of the cuts and hardline policy provisions, but more mainstream and politically threatened Republicans have refused to support them.
In one case last fall, more moderate lawmakers helped defeat a spending bill that prevented money from being spent on enforcing a District of Columbia law that protects workers from discrimination for seeking contraceptive or abortion services.
Republicans also sought to reverse a new Food and Drug Administration rule that allows mifepristone — the first pill used in a two-drug abortion regimen — to be dispensed by mail and in retail stores. And they want to bar the VA from marking a veteran as mentally incompetent on a federal gun background check without a court order.
“These hardline agents of chaos in the House do not represent the majority of Republicans in the country,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York and the majority leader, said Tuesday ahead of the White House meeting. “They do not represent the Republican majority in the Senate. They don’t even represent the Republican majority in the House. However, they try to bully everyone else to get what they want.”
If Congress does not approve a new round of funding before midnight Friday, funding for military construction, agriculture, transportation and housing programs will end. Funding for all other agencies, including the Pentagon, is set to expire at midnight on March 8.
Driving the impasse is the same dynamic that has persisted since this Conference began a year ago. Hard-line Republicans have sought to use their party’s slim majority in the House as leverage to twist spending cuts and conservative policy terms on how federal money can be spent from Mr. Biden and Senate Democrats. And the Republican speaker — first Kevin McCarthy and now Mr. Johnson — has worked to placate that restless group, agreeing to tailor spending bills to their demands, even though many of its members have rarely, if ever, supported bills. credits during their term of office. Congress.
The result was that congressional leaders had to turn to Democrats three times to help fund the government with short-term spending bills.
Right-wing Republicans have grown increasingly disgruntled as they see government funding continue to flow without cuts or policy changes and are stepping up pressure on Mr Johnson to secure some sort of conservative victory in the ongoing spending negotiations.
Mr. Johnson told Republicans on Friday during a conference call that they should not expect many of their top policy priorities to be included, although he said he expected to secure a number of smaller victories.
Luke Broadwater contributed to the report.
