Dozens of House Republicans defected from their leadership Tuesday and voted against another short-term spending measure that would keep the government operating for three more weeks. The GOP-written bill passed 271-158, but 54 Republicans voted no, signifying to the GOP leadership that it will become increasingly difficult and potentially impossible to pass short, stopgap spending measures as they struggle to strike a larger deal that would fund the government through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.
Most of the GOP lawmakers who voted no did so because they favor a long-term budget plan that cuts $61.5 billion over seven months. The measure approved Tuesday reduces spending by just $6 billion and keeps the government operating only until April 8.
The GOP defections included mostly fiscal conservatives and freshmen who ran for office with the endorsement of the Tea Party movement, which advocates drastically reduced federal spending to shrink the nation’s deficit and debt.
“There was $23 billion in deficit spending in February,” Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., told The Washington Examiner, explaining his vote against the measure. “We’re spending four to five billion dollars a day. So $6 billion isn’t going to get us anywhere. The American people know we’ve got to do better.”
The bill is the second short-term funding measure Congress took up this month. Lawmakers easily passed an earlier two-week spending bill with just six Republicans voting against it.
Congress has been stuck in a cycle of passing short-term bills because Democrats and Republicans are significantly divided on how much spending to slash for the remainder of the year. Senate Democrats rejected the House GOP plan calling for $61.5 billion in cuts, and Republicans say the $4.5 billion in reductions proposed by Democrats is far too little.
Republican leaders argued that their short-term bill cuts $2 billion per week, which is proportional to the cuts in their long term bill.
“In just the last five weeks, House Republicans have achieved $10 billion in spending cuts,” said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va.
But frustration is growing on both sides of the aisle as negotiations for a long-term budget remain stalled.
Republicans say they’re waiting for a new offer from Democrats. But Democrats said it is the GOP’s turn to produce a new plan.
“We are now waiting for a counteroffer from them,” said House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md. “We have not received that.”
Republicans were able to pass Tuesday’s short-term measure only with the help of 85 Democrats, but Democratic support for stopgap spending is also starting to dwindle.
Hoyer said Tuesday he will not keep backing short-term measures that slash $2 billion per week.
The Senate is expected to take up the new House-passed funding bill as early as Thursday. So far, GOP Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Jim DeMint of South Carolina said they would vote against it, but the measure is still expected to pass. The government is expected to run out of funds on Friday.
