GOP spending battle intensifies as conservative House lawmaker pokes Senate: ‘Saddle up’

A series of posts on X from Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) on Monday evening foreshadowed the tense battles over spending — fueled by a divide between House and Senate Republicans — that will play out in Congress this month ahead of a shutdown deadline.

“Game time,” he posted, adding, “Saddle up,” and, “Let’s roll.” 

Roy reposted a user saying, “Chip for Speaker!!!” — a possible sign that hard-line conservatives are putting pressure on House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to meet their demands for further spending cuts and policy conditions on any stopgap funding bill, or else face a possible attempt to recall his Speakership.

In another post, Roy directly confronted fellow Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn.

Cornyn on Monday posted an excerpt from Punchbowl News outlining the stark divide between the House and Senate as Congress has only 16 legislative days in the Senate and 11 legislative days in the House to act before a Sept. 30 government funding deadline. 

“The House and Senate are in completely different universes when it comes to how lawmakers should fund federal agencies in both the short and long term,” the excerpts sent by Cornyn said.

Roy shot back with a chart showing a surge in government spending over the last several years, arguing against passing a “clean” continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government at current levels past 

“Republicans should not fund (with debt – see chart) the things they campaign against – and then just shrug… border… DOJ weaponization… DOD wokeness… IRS abuse… COVID tyranny. Extending a CR of the disastrous Omni is non-starter. #NoSecurityNoFunding,” Roy said.

The House Freedom Caucus, of which Roy is a member, took an official position in August opposing any stopgap funding bill unless it has policy changes related to the border, the “weaponization” of the Department of Justice and FBI, and “woke” policies in the military.

The Senate has marked up appropriations bills in line with the spending caps outlined in the debt ceiling bill that McCarthy negotiated with President Biden, but the House has marked up spending bills at lower levels — frustrating Senate Republicans. And many members of the right flank want to further slash spending levels in the House bills.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said last week that gulf between the House and the Senate amounts to “a pretty big mess.”