House Speaker Kevin McCarthy suffered a major defeat at the hands of his conference with nearly two dozen Republicans joining Democrats to crush his stopgap spending bill.
Lawmakers voted against the measure in spectacular fashion, sinking the bill 198 to 232, with 21 GOP lawmakers joining all the chamber’s Democrats in voting no.
The bill’s failure all but guaranteed a partial government shutdown at midnight Saturday.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, Florida Republican, led the contingent of conservatives who vowed to never vote for short-term spending legislation. Those lawmakers have been firm in their commitment to passing spending bills one by one rather than voting for a stopgap bill.
They voted down Mr. McCarthy’s last-ditch effort to avert a shutdown despite the bill containing a conservative wishlist of spending cuts and border security measures.
“Right now my sole focus is on getting our single subject spending bills passed,” Mr. Gaetz said. “The speaker’s continuing resolution went down in flames as I’ve told you all week it would.”
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That wishlight of conservative policies included a steep spending cut, to $1.471 trillion for the measure’s duration until Oct. 31, the creation of a 16-member debt commission and most of the Secure the Border Act.
Mr. McCarthy attempted to make border security front and center in the GOP’s stopgap push. But for some, the bill did not go far enough with its border provisions.
Rep. Troy Nehls, Texas Republican, said he could not vote for the measure because even though it included the Secure the Border Act, it lacked the E-Verify policy, which would have required all businesses to use the E-Verify system that confirms if an employee is eligible to work in the country.
Democratic lawmakers voted en masse against the bill because of the border legislation, which they dubbed the “Child Deportation Act” when the Secure the Border Act was introduced earlier this year.
Democrats also said the stopgap bill would impose a 30% cut on government services.
“They take food out of the mouths of children, families and seniors,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, before the vote. “There needs to be a ‘no’ vote on this irresponsible continuing resolution.”
Unsurprisingly, conservatives who voted in favor of the measure were frustrated with their colleagues.
Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina said it was a shame that the House handed over “the purse strings” for funding the government to the Senate.
“A 30 Day CR, really? Can’t agree on that?” Mr. Norman said. “But everybody’s got a vote and I respect their vote. I voted for the CR and I think it’s the right thing to do. It didn’t pass, so we’ll live to fight another day.”
Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas said 21 Republicans shot down a “hyper-conservative” spending bill that would have allowed lawmakers more time to complete the eight remaining spending measures needed to fund the government.
“They killed the most conservative position we could take, and then call themselves the real conservatives, which is like, make that make sense,” Mr. Crenshaw said. “You can’t make it make sense. And so now you’re gonna get a more liberal spending bill.”
The Democrat-led Senate is priming its stopgap bill, which includes over $6 billion in Ukraine funding, $6 billion in disaster relief and no border provisions, for a Saturday vote.
Another option is through a House Democrat-led discharge petition, which is a procedural move that could allow Democratic lawmakers to bring a short-term spending bill to the floor without Mr. McCarthy’s blessing. So far, 213 Democrats have signed on to the petition and a handful of Republicans have toyed with joining their strategy.
But Mr. McCarthy and the majority of the conference that voted in favor of the doomed stopgap bill could make another effort before the midnight deadline on Saturday.
“One thing I will say about this town, nothing’s ever really over,” said Rep. Byron Donalds, Florida Republican.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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