House Republicans canceled the drafting of appropriations bills, saying Speaker Kevin McCarthy needs flexibility in the debt limit negotiations with President Biden — but the delay also spares the party from pinpointing proposed spending cuts.
The House Appropriations Committee was scheduled to hold hearings Tuesday marking up bills appropriating taxpayer money for military construction, veterans affairs and the operations of Congress. Appropriations Chairwoman Kay Granger canceled the hearings at the last minute.
Mrs. Granger, Texas Republican, said the move would give Mr. McCarthy “maximum flexibility” in crafting a deal for spending cuts in exchange for increasing the government’s $32.4 trillion borrowing limit.
The committee also canceled plans for later this week to begin finalizing bills appropriating money for the Homeland Security and Agriculture departments and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Congressional Democrats accused Republicans of trying to obscure the unpopular spending cuts to domestic programs needed to enact the GOP plan to balance the budget and pay down the national debt.
“The four bills we were supposed to markup this week were the ‘easy ones,’ cherry-picked so House Republicans did not have to reveal to the American people their plan to pull teachers out of kids’ classrooms and law enforcement off local streets or make our airports and communities less safe,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Connecticut Democrat, said.
Indeed, the postponement means that Mr. McCarthy will not be bogged down by pushback against spending cuts as he tries to reach a deal with Mr. Biden.
“It’s negotiating 101,” a GOP lobbyist with knowledge of the appropriations process said. “You want to control the narrative as much as you can and not give the opposing side ammunition.”
Earlier this year, Mr. McCarthy clinched the job of speaker, in part, by pledging to balance the budget over the next decade. Mr. McCarthy also agreed to slash $130 billion in spending for the upcoming fiscal year and cap future spending growth by 1% over the next decade.
Those pledges that Mr. McCarthy made to the Freedom Caucus were incorporated in the House GOP’s recently passed legislation to raise the debt limit by $1.5 trillion and slash spending by $4.8 trillion over the next decade.
The GOP debt limit bill also included the $130 billion immediate cut to bring spending in line with where it was before Congress passed a $1.7 trillion government funding bill in December 2022. That measure saw defense spending alone grow by nearly 10% — from $782 billion to $858 billion.
While Republicans are clear about the need to cut spending, they have refused to illustrate in full what programs will be on the chopping block.
The ambiguity has already burned Republicans once.
Mr. Biden and his Democrats immediately attacked the debt limit bill by saying a $130 billion cut could impact every single agency, including reducing veterans’ benefits.
“The proposal would mean 30 million fewer Veteran outpatient visits, and 81,000 jobs lost across the Veterans Health Administration. … The Veterans Benefits Administration would eliminate more than 6,000 staff, increasing the disability claims backlog by an estimated 134,000 claims,” the Veterans Administration said in a statement.
House Republicans have pushed back on the claim they want to slash veterans’ benefits or defense spending, saying spending cuts will be targeted at the federal bureaucracy. To show their commitment, Republicans are pushing to boost funding for veterans, border security and the Pentagon.
“We will demonstrate how we are able to reduce overall spending without impacting our commitment to veterans, national defense, or homeland security,” Mrs. Granger said.
Still, it leaves plenty of other programs that House Republicans will have to slash to achieve their goal.
“Based on what Republicans have shown us with the appropriations bills, we are looking at a 30% cut across the board to the remaining domestic programs,” Rep. Pete Aguilar, California Democrat, said.
In the ongoing talks between the White House and Mr. McCarthy, both sides are stuck on how much to cut spending for the upcoming fiscal year. House Republicans still want a $130 billion cut. Mr. Biden wants to keep spending at last year’s levels but adjusted for inflation.
There is also a divide over expanded welfare work requirements.
Republicans want to impose requirements that able-bodied and childless recipients of Medicaid, food stamps and cash assistance work at least 20 hours per week. They also proposed blocking states and the federal government from waiving work requirements for food stamps.
Mr. Biden has ruled out expanding work requirements for Medicaid and food stamps but is willing to compromise on cash payments. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that expanded work requirements for cash payments would only save $6 million over the next decade.
“An agreement’s going to be tough to come by,” said House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry, North Carolina Republican, who is on Mr. McCarthy’s negotiating team.
• Haris Alic can be reached at halic@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.