The conservative group Club For Growth on Wednesday morning told lawmakers in the House and Senate that it will no longer be scoring this week’s vote on the government funding measure.
In a memo sent this morning to congressional offices and marked “urgent,” Club for Growth’s vice president of governmental affairs, Andy Roth, told lawmakers that the group is withdrawing it’s decision to score the bill because it includes language to authorize arming and training Syrian rebels against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
“The addition of the ISIS language does not make this a revealing vote about economic policy,” Roth said in the memo. “Instead, it will be largely driven by foreign policy, something the Club for Growth does not take an official position on.”
The Club for Growth earlier this month indicated it was opposed to the government funding measure in part because it includes a provision extending the Export-Import Bank until June.
Roth said in the Wednesday memo that the group remains “strongly opposed” to both the funding measure and the extension of the Ex-Im Bank.
Scoring the bill would have made it more difficult for some Republicans to back the government funding measure because it could hurt their ranking with Club for Growth among conservative lawmakers.
The House on Wednesday is expected to pass the funding bill, along with the amendment to train and equip the Syrian rebels.
