House Republicans aim to pass two appropriations bills as part of a greater strategy to pressure President Joe Biden to adopt more spending cuts.
The House hopes to pass the fiscal year 2024 Agriculture and MilCon-VA [Military Construction, Veterans Affairs] appropriations bills and two Congressional Review Act (CRA) disapproval resolutions.
The MilCon-VA bill would boost Veterans Affairs Department funding as Biden and congressional Democrats have said that Republicans would use a debt ceiling deal to cut veterans’ care.
The Agriculture bill would cut billions of dollars from the U.S. Department of Agriculture budget (USDA), as Republicans say that the end of the coronavirus pandemic should eliminate the need for increased welfare spending, including for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
The MilCon-VA bill would ban abortion, transgender medical procedures, and flying LGBTQ flags at Veterans Affairs hospitals. The Agriculture bill would block approval of mail delivery for mifepristone, the abortion-by-pill drug.
House conservatives hope to attach more amendments tackling abortion, transgenderism, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and critical race theory (CRT).
“If it takes a rider on an appropriation bill or language in an appropriation bill to stop the federal funding for transgender therapy for minors, then maybe that’s what it will take,” Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), a member of the House Freedom Caucus, said.
Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD). (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
House Republicans would also like to cut spending by more than $100 billion, which would go below the spending levels agreed to in the debt ceiling deal, otherwise known as the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, compared working with Republicans to “negotiating with terrorists,” although she agreed to have that remark stricken from the record. Other Democrats have slammed Republican measures as “disgusting and ugly bigotry.”
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT). (Graeme Jennings/Pool via AP)
House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY), House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) explained to Breitbart News in late May how the Fiscal Responsibility Act would give Republicans leverage to combat Biden’s agenda and other woke policies.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The Republican lawmakers explained that the debt ceiling legislation contains a crucial Republican provision, crafted by Rules Committee member Thomas Massie (R-KY), that would automatically pass a continuing resolution with a one percent across-the-board federal government cut if Congress fails to pass the 12 separate appropriations bills, which the Constitution stipulates.
Passing the appropriations bills would give House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) leverage over Senate Democrats and Biden to negotiate a compromise spending bill and agree to more spending cuts and potentially axe woke policies through the appropriations process.
The House’s passing of their debt ceiling bill, the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023, enabled McCarthy to gain leverage to negotiate with Biden and get the president to agree to spending cuts in the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
As Massie said during the House Republican Conference meeting in May, “The debt limit is a scrimmage match, and approps [appropriations] is the Super Bowl.”
Watch: McCarthy Sounds the Alarm over National Debt: “Every Great Society Collapses When They Overextend”:
Matthew Perdie / Breitbart News, Jack Knudsen / Breitbart News , Zenny Phuong / Breitbart NewsSean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
