Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), and other House conservatives slammed House Speaker Johnson’s proposed continuing resolution (CR) to avoid a government shutdown, saying on Monday that it simply continues current federal spending and does nothing to reduce it.
“No one campaigned on the status quo,” Davidson told reporters. “No one campaigned on sustaining the spending levels or policies that have been implemented by Biden, Schumer and Pelosi and that’s what this does until January and February but it really does worse.”
“In the debt ceiling deal that is supposed to have taken effect October 1, there are spending cuts and in the debt ceiling deal, there are work requirements and by attaching the farm bill to this that goes for another year, you avoid implementing what was already agreed to in the debt ceiling deal,” he said. “You avoid implementing the cuts that were already in the debt ceiling deal.”
The House Budget Committee said that “if Congress does not pass all 12 appropriations bills by the end of December,” the Fiscal Responsibility Act “mandates a 1% budget cut that would apply to defense and non-defense spending.”
The CR is scheduled for a vote on Tuesday and would fund the government for another 45 days when the current 45 day CR expires this week. McCarthy was ousted as Speaker for a similar bill in September.
Davidson emphasized that the House GOP majority should be passing “spending cuts” and “policy reforms” instead of continuing the status quo on federal funding. “I’m not voting for it,” he said.
The House Freedom Caucus has also slammed the proposed bill and said that they will oppose the bill.
“The House Freedom Caucus opposes the proposed ‘clean’ Continuing Resolution as it contains no spending reductions, no border security, and not a single meaningful win for the American People,” the group said in its position statement, released Tuesday morning. “Republicans must stop negotiating against ourselves over fears of what the Senate may do with the promise ‘roll over today and we’ll fight tomorrow.’”
“While we remain committed to working with Speaker Johnson, we need bold change,” the Freedom Caucus added.
Sen. Bob Good (R-Va) told reporters that he will be voting against the bill, adding that he would like to see Johnson bring forth a “different version” of the CR.
Johnson addressed opposition to the bill and said that he knows that not “loading this one up with spending cuts and policy riders is a great disappointment to some people” but that a bill with spending cuts would not get the votes required to pass.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the federal government ran a $67 billion deficit in the month of October alone.