House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) hit Senate Republicans for trying to spend above the caps set in the debt ceiling bill and emphasized the need to pass the homeland security appropriations bill during a GOP members-only call on Monday.
On the call, McCarthy said, “Senate Democrats and Republicans are working very closely together to spend more money” and that for the House to be strong in negotiations, they need to “hone our message on the issues that we care most about,” which includes the borders and energy.
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He emphasized that the more appropriations bills House Republicans are able to pass off the floor, the stronger the conference is going to be when they go into conference with the Senate “because it’s going to be us against all the others.”
He acknowledged that it will be “pretty hard” to pass all 12 appropriations bills by Sep. 30, when the government is set to run out of money, and defended the likely need for a short-term continuing resolution, telling his conference that if the government shuts down on Oct. 1, the Democrats “control all the messaging” and Republicans “give the power to the administration.”
The continuing resolution would likely be at most a 30-day continuing resolution as McCarthy does not want the Senate to “jam them up against the holidays.”
While talking to his members, McCarthy heavily emphasized the need to pass the homeland appropriations bill, saying he believes if the House could pass that before Sep. 30, along with other appropriations bills, they would be able to go into conference committee with the high ground and be able to control the negotiations.
“If we’re able to pass homeland and go into Sept. 30, I think we can win the day every day in that fight. Because it has so many policy reforms to secure the border,” McCarthy said.
He believes House Republicans can win a messaging war when they are fighting for border security priorities.
If the House can pass some of the appropriations bills before Sep. 30, McCarthy said, “personally believes if we did a really short CR to be able to do more messaging and being in conference to see where the Senate is at, I think we have a stronger hand to have that fight in a month after September.”
He emphasized the need for the party to be strategic and not just hold out and watch the government shutdown. Rather, they should pass the appropriations bills they can, then pass a short-term continuing resolution and fight in conference with the Senate, and then they can control the messaging.
“I want to fight for something instead of just swinging my arms around for people to watch me screaming. I want to knock somebody out,” McCarthy said.
But some members pushed back on the idea of a continuing resolution, including Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), who has been a vocal leader of the Freedom Caucus during the appropriations battle in ensuring House Republicans don’t cave and spend more money.
“I’ve got individuals in Texas coming to me and saying, ‘How can you guys give a single dollar to the Department of Homeland Security to continue to do what they’re doing’ … while we’re sitting here having a conference call about things like CRs and Senate votes and things that nobody in America really cares about,” Roy said.
The Texas Republican emphasized that he’s “going to throw everything he’s got” between now and Sept. 30 because “it’s literally the only leverage we have” to pass conservative priorities and ensure the government gets its spending under control.
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Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) also pushed back on the idea of a short-term continuing resolution. In the past, Good has said House Republicans should not fear a government shutdown and would not support a continuing resolution without conservative policies, such as the House’s border security bill being passed by the Senate and signed into law by President Joe Biden.
On the call, Good said the House will never get what it wants if they aren’t “willing to walk away and say no” and emphasized members should be willing to vote against any spending bill that is not at the $1.471 trillion without rescissions.
