The House Freedom Caucus is gearing up for a budget fight by urging Republican leadership to whip votes against any spending bills that could result in Democratic priorities passing in the lame-duck session.
The conservative group of rank-and-file members is hoping that the spending bill that needs to pass before the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30 will be a clean continuing resolution that lasts until the new Congress begins on Jan. 3, 2023. The current stopgap measure under consideration would fund the government until Dec. 16, which sets up a lame-duck spending fight in which House Democrats, widely predicted to lose their majority in the Nov. 8 midterm elections, could push through add-ons objectionable to Republicans.
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“The Republicans are going to take back the House. In light of that, why would Republicans cast one vote in favor of this tyranny?” Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry (R-PA) said at a Thursday press conference. “Especially when it’s gonna go into December and give these leftist Democrats another fight at more continued tyranny. We’re asking the whip to request that every single Republican vote no. Not just recommend a no — whip a no vote.”
A senior leadership aide told the Washington Examiner that top Republicans oppose the Democrats’ spending agenda but do not whip votes until a bill has text.
Funding for the current fiscal year runs out on Sept. 30, but Congress seldom has a budget ready for the next year by this date. The issue is typically resolved with a continuing resolution, or CR, that keeps funding at current levels until a new budget is sorted. The Appropriations Committee is leaning toward the CR running out on Dec. 16, which would mean a new CR would have to be decided by a lame duck Congress and continue into the new 118th Congress, all while members are desperate to get out of Washington, D.C., for Christmas.
“History tells us that every lame-duck spending bill spending effort always results in bad policies and typically large amounts of spending being stuck in because you’ve got the jet fumes of Christmas,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), a Freedom Caucus member, told the Washington Examiner. “And you’ve got Congress, many of whom are no longer going to be in Congress. Lame-duck [sessions] are particularly dangerous times to be setting policy via spending.”
Republicans are widely expected to take the majority in the House during the midterm elections, and the Freedom Caucus is hoping that Republicans will do everything in their power to prevent Democrats from packing a lame-duck spending bill with provisions that support their agenda. But since they won’t take control until January, assuming Republicans win enough seats in the lower chamber, there isn’t much the House GOP can do to prevent lame-duck Democrats from adding what they want to a possible December CR. The fight will likely come down to the 50-50 Senate, which needs 10 Republican votes to overcome the filibuster and pass legislation.
The fear that Democrats will take advantage of a lame-duck session isn’t without precedent. After the 2010 midterm elections, in which Republicans flipped the House and decreased the Democratic majority in the Senate, the outgoing 111th Congress passed more legislation in December than it had since March of that year.
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The Freedom Caucus ultimately wants to bring down overall spending — at minimum to pre-pandemic levels. The caucus also wants to ensure that Democratic-backed priorities such as vaccine mandates do not receive funding but that managing the border crisis gets high-priority funding.
Multiple fights are brewing over the CR — most notably is bipartisan opposition to the permitting reform deal cut by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) that would make it easier for energy companies to develop in West Virginia. House Democrats have said they will oppose the deal on environmental grounds.
