McCarthy told conference he won’t allow vote on Senate stopgap: GOP lawmakers

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told members of the House GOP conference Wednesday morning that he will not bring the Senate’s bipartisan continuing resolution to the floor for a vote.

Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) told reporters after a closed-door House GOP conference meeting that McCarthy informed lawmakers during the gathering that he will not bring the upper chamber’s legislation to the floor for a vote, even after the Senate voted to advance it in a bipartisan fashion Tuesday night.

“I don’t think he plans to do that,” Good said when asked about bringing the Senate stopgap bill up for a vote. “He reiterated that this morning. I called on him to consistently say that to the public, let the Senate know that’s dead on arrival and that there’s no way the House would pass that bill.”

Pressed on if McCarthy told the conference that he will not bring up the Senate legislation, Good responded, “That’s exactly right.”

A second House Republican confirmed to The Hill that McCarthy said he would not bring the measure to the floor for a vote.

Senate leaders unveiled a continuing resolution Tuesday afternoon to fund the government through Nov. 17. The legislation also includes roughly $6.15 billion in funding for Ukraine, $5.99 billion in disaster assistance and would temporarily extend the expiring authority of the Federal Aviation Administration.

The Senate advanced the legislation in an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote Tuesday night, 77-19.

While the measure has the backing of Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, a number of House conservatives have already lined up against the legislation, pointing to the inclusion of Ukraine aid and the exclusion of border security provisions.

Asked about the Senate proposal following Wednesday’s conference meeting, McCarthy told reporters: “I don’t see the support in the House.”

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said the legislation “is dead over here,” referring to the House.

“First of all, you continue spending, you have $6.2 billion for Ukraine, they do nothing to secure our southern border. That is just a nonstarter,” he said. “The Senate needs to get real.”

Some House Republicans, however, would be open to the stopgap measure.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who represents a district President Biden won in 2020, said he would support the Senate’s legislation and that McCarthy should bring it to the floor “if that is the only option.”

“I don’t want a shutdown. I would support it,” he noted earlier.

Instead, however, McCarthy said he plans to bring a GOP-crafted stopgap bill to the floor Friday, legislation that will be dead on arrival in the Senate but is meant to open negotiations with Democrats in the upper chamber.

Good told reporters that McCarthy’s stopgap measure would keep the government open for 30 days, decrease spending to a top-line level of $1.471 trillion for that duration and include border security provisions. Good also noted that McCarthy wants to pass the stopgap “in conjunction with continuing to move our spending bills,” which has been a key demand among conservatives.

Whether or not McCarthy has enough votes to pass the partisan stopgap measure, however, remains to be seen. A number of hard-line conservatives have said they will not vote for a continuing resolution under any circumstances.