House Republicans are working on a stopgap spending bill that includes border security measures, adding the sweetener to win support from arch-conservatives who are threatening to force a government shutdown.
Members of the House Freedom Caucus are in talks with members of the more moderate Main Street Caucus to include elements of the GOP’s marquee Secure the Border Act into a short-term spending bill to keep the government open past a Sept. 30 shutdown deadline.
The Main Street Caucus, one of the most influential House GOP caucuses, has over 70 members who describe themselves as “pragmatic” conservatives.
Freedom Caucus lawmakers have held firm to a list of demands — including border security measures — to earn their support for the stopgap bill.
Secure the Border Act includes finishing the Trump border wall, hiring more Border Patrol agents and reducing the Biden administration’s use of parole power to release migrants.
It also reinstates the Trump-era policy that makes asylum seekers wait in Mexico until their asylum claims are adjudicated, increases the collection of DNA from migrants and makes the E-Verify work authorization platform mandatory for businesses.
The two caucuses are “working together in good faith” to add in some of these border security provisions, said Rep. Dusty Johnson of South Dakota, the Main Street chairman, and Rep. Stephanie Bice of Oklahoma, the vice chair.
“The talks have been productive and we’ll continue to work toward a deal,” they said in a joint statement.
Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, one of the Freedom Caucus lawmakers in the negotiations, said border security should be Congress’ top priority.
“That is the job of the federal government if it doesn’t do that, and why are you funding it,” he told reporters at the Capitol.
Including the Secure the Border Act in the short-term spending bill would be a victory for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, of California, who has vowed to keep lawmakers in Washington until they hammer out a deal to avoid a partial government shutdown on Sept. 30.
However, adding border security provisions to the bill, which is known as a “continuing resolution” or CR, would be a poison pill for the Democrat-controlled Senate.
It’s also not a guarantee to win over enough Freedom Caucus votes to pass a CR. Border security is just one of their demands.
Another must-have for the roughly 40 arch-conservatives is deeper spending cuts than Mr. McCarthy and President Biden agreed to in the deal earlier this year to suspend the government’s $34.1 trillion debt limit.
The Freedom Caucus wants a top-line spending level that is about $115 billion less than the $1.6 trillion agreed to in the debt limit deal. Their resolve on this issue forced Mr. McCarthy to cancel votes on the annual defense spending bill, which should have been a layup for conservative lawmakers.
The House has advanced just one out of the 12 annual spending bills that fund the government. The slow appropriations process made a stopgap spending bill the only option to avoid a partial shutdown, when nonessential federal workers will be furloughed and some nonessential services will stop.
“We gonna have a shutdown, it’s just a matter of how long,” said Rep. Ralph Norman, a Freedom Caucus member from South Carolina.
Rep. John Rutherford, a Florida Republican on the Appropriations Committee, said the Freedom Caucus should recognize that there are already significant cuts in the spending bills.
He also warned that forcing further cuts could cause Republicans in swing districts to cast votes that could cost them reelection next year.
“Some of these guys and girls are going to be having to take a hard vote that could cost them their seat. And that bill is going nowhere. The Senate’s never going to go along with that,” Mr. Rutherford told The Washington Times.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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