Head of Freedom Caucus bashes funding deal, vows shutdown fight

The head of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus is bashing the nascent funding agreement hashed out by leaders of both parties, warning that conservatives would be willing to force a government shutdown to secure steeper cuts and policy preferences.

Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) has led the charge among the far-right lawmakers urging Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to fight for scores of conservative policy riders to accompany the 2024 spending bills. Absent that, those Republicans want the Speaker to champion a stopgap bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), to extend government funding at current 2023 levels through the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends Oct. 1.

The latter strategy would trigger an automatic, 1-percent cut to federal programs of all types beginning May 1 — a stipulation of last summer’s bipartisan Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) designed to encourage lawmakers to reach an agreement on 2024 spending or face reductions to popular programs.

Good said that 1-percent cut is far preferable to the deal Johnson endorsed with the leaders of both parties and both chambers, which adopts higher spending caps established by those same leaders in January. He’s also calling for a series of policy changes, including tougher border security measures and a scaling back of the government’s spying powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

“I would do a CR through Sept. 30 that triggers the FRA caps that would cut about $100 billion from the deal,” Good said Wednesday evening in the Capitol.

“I’d attach border security to it. I would attach [the] Israel pay-for. And I’d attach FISA … reforms. That’s what I’d like to see happen. And we ought to be willing to have a shutdown fight to force it to happen.”

Good isn’t the only conservative voicing his disapproval.

Reps. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) and Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) were among the conservatives who said Thursday they wouldn’t vote for a stopgap measure.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said he prefers a yearlong CR to the one announced Wednesday night.

“I’m for the long-term CR; that’s the only way you can get leverage,” he said. “That’s not what the direction looks like now.”

Reps. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) and Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) return from a lunch break in the deposition of Hunter Biden as a part of the impeachment investigation into his father President Biden at the O’Neil House Office Building in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, February 28, 2024. (Greg Nash)

And Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) made clear she’s unhappy with the direction the party is headed.

“Remember the big fight earlier this year about no CR’s and rules and no omnibuses and no minibuses? Well, everything talked about in conference this morning was a CR, another CR, a weeklong CR,” she said. “And then you’ve got the most conservative members of Congress standing up wanting a one-year CR. I don’t know what to say.”

It’s unclear how much power conservatives like Good hold to force such a shutdown. The spending deal unveiled Wednesday features two legislative packages scheduled to receive two separate votes over the next month.

The first package is expected to hit the House floor before March 8; the second is slated to follow by March 22. The House will vote Thursday on a CR to prevent a shutdown before those two deadlines, with the Senate expected to follow suit.

The conservatives could block those packages if Johnson chooses to bring them to the floor under regular order, which would require the passage of a rule beforehand — a rule the conservatives could sink.

The more likely strategy would be to bring the funding bills up by a procedure known as the suspension calendar, which bypasses the rule requirement but heightens the bar for passage; a two-thirds majority would be needed to send the bills to the Senate.

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That’s the likely route GOP leaders will choose, and given the early support from bipartisan leaders, it’s expected to be successful.

But for Johnson, there are dangers in that strategy, as well. His predecessor, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), had brought a CR to the floor last September under the suspension calendar. It prevented a government shutdown but also triggered a vote to remove his gavel. 

Within days, McCarthy had been toppled from power. 

Mychael Schnell and Nick Robertson contributed.