House Republicans fail to advance GOP-backed defense bill amid conference chaos

The House was unable Tuesday to bring a Republican-backed defense spending bill up for debate after five hardline conservatives voted with Democrats to torpedo the procedural vote. 

In a blow to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the lower chamber voted 214-212 to kill the so-called “rules vote” on the $886 billion Pentagon spending bill amid intraparty division on how to deal with a looming government shutdown and questions about the House speaker’s efforts to cut spending.

Reps. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), Ralph Norman (R-SC), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Dan Bishop (R-NC) and Ken Buck (R-Colo.) voted to defeat the measure. 

It’s the second time since McCarthy assumed the speakership in January that a rules vote has failed.

Prior to McCarthy’s tenure, November 2002 was the last time such a vote failed to pass the House.

The Republicans who opposed the measure argue that GOP leadership has not assured them that fiscal year 2024 appropriations won’t exceed spending caps McCarthy negotiated with President Biden back in May. 

“I took down the rule – as I vowed I would – because the Conference continues not to have moved twelve appropriations bills at the spending level agreed to in January,” Bishop said in a tweet.

“I assume leadership believes me now.” 

“For months, I have made it clear that in order for me to support the appropriations bills, we need to see the total value for all 12 bills,” Rosendale said in a tweet.

“Leadership has yet to provide us with that number, which is why I voted against the rule this afternoon! Why are they keeping it a secret?”

McCarthy expressed disbelief at the GOP opposition to opening debate on the bill. 

“Ask those five why they voted against it,” he told reporters after the failed vote.

“Think about what they’re voting against. They’re voting against even bringing the bill up to have a discussion about it to vote on. If you’re opposed to the bill, vote against the bill at the end.” 

“You could change it if you don’t like it. But the idea that you vote against a rule, to even bring it up, that makes no sense to me,” McCarthy added.

House and Senate leaders are scrambling to pass 12 appropriations bills by Jan. 1, 2024, to avoid a 1% across-the-board cut in federal spending. 

McCarthy has proposed passing a 30-day continuing resolution to keep the government funded through the end of October and continue debate on the 2024 funding bills, but the House speaker delayed a procedural vote on the stopgap measure before Tuesday’s failed rules vote on the defense spending bill. 

The proposed continuing resolution would fund the government until Oct. 31, cutting discretionary spending by about 8% for agencies outside of defense, veterans affairs and disaster relief, and it faces opposition from more than a dozen Republican hardliners who say it doesn’t go far enough to rein in spending. 

Even if McCarthy does win the hard-liners over, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has called the proposal a “non-starter” in the upper chamber.