House GOP appropriators are growing frustrated with the duration of the government shutdown, arguing they cannot do their jobs and will not bring the remaining full-year funding bills to the floor until the government reopens.
All 12 appropriations cardinals told the Washington Examiner they are concerned about the time being lost as the shutdown carries on. Friday marks 17 days since the shutdown began, and the continuing resolution to reopen the government only punts the funding deadline to Nov. 21.
With that date fast approaching, appropriators are aware they may need to negotiate a new deadline with their Senate Republican colleagues and Democratic counterparts that would allow the appropriators to move forward with their work. However, they said that particular duty rests with Senate Democrats, who have “wasted over two weeks” of negotiations by blocking the GOP’s CR a total of 10 times since the bill arrived in the upper chamber.
“Every day that goes by, we waste lots of valuable time for finishing out our work as appropriators, whatever that may be: our individual bills or some sort of minibus, and even other options that are being talked about after the government shut down, if we get into any or requests that a lot of us are interested in doing,” Rep. David Valadao (R-CA) said.
“But that’s all a separate conversation until we get the government open,” he continued.
The House has passed three appropriations bills: Military Construction/Veterans Affairs, Energy and Water, and Defense. All 12 have passed out of the Appropriations Committee, but several were expected to face pushback from both parties prior to the shutdown and never made it to the floor for a vote before the Sept. 30 fiscal year deadline.
Valadao, the Legislative Branch subcommittee’s cardinal, or chairman, said it was frustrating to head into a shutdown when he believed the committee was making “a lot of progress” with Senate Republicans and Democratic appropriators in both chambers, especially on his bill.
He said now, everything is on pause because of the shutdown.
Appropriators are stalled as Democrats hold up CR
While the Senate is calling vote after vote on the GOP CR, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has kept the lower chamber on recess since it passed the spending deal on Sept. 19.
Though some Republicans and all Democrats have called on Johnson to bring back the House and have discussions on appropriations and other topics, the speaker has repeatedly stated that the House “did its job,” and he, too, is frustrated that the government is at a standstill.
“People are upset. I’m upset. I’m a very patient man, but I am angry right now,” Johnson said last week during one of the many press conferences he has held since the start of the shutdown.
House leadership has been adamant that there is no reason to bring the House back because they passed the clean CR, which would reopen negotiations on appropriations bills. With the shutdown still going on, leaders and appropriations cardinals are insistent that there’s nothing they can do but wait.
“What would help appropriators are colleagues who recognize our fundamental duty to uphold our Article I responsibilities,” Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV), cardinal of Homeland Security appropriations, said. “If they can’t see how damaging a shutdown is to the American people, we’re not going to get very far.”
Johnson has been calling for Congress to return to an “old-school” funding process, where the House and Senate would go to conference on funding. In early October, he told Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, directly that he’d facilitate bipartisan negotiations on funding bills, but only once the government opens.
Meanwhile, Democrats have been loath to accept any verbal agreements, instead using the CR fight to demand Republicans permanently extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies. However, several cardinals noted that extending the ACA tax credits is not the role of appropriations, so in their view, it doesn’t belong in this funding fight.
Valadao and Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY), cardinal of Commerce appropriations, said prior to the shutdown, House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK) and Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Susan Collins were getting along great with Murray and ranking member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT). Everyone had a seat at the table, he said, and things were moving in the right direction.
“And the Democrats moved the goal post, and a clean CR wasn’t good enough for them anymore,” Valadao said.
Republicans throw support behind CR as means to an end
CRs rarely get full Republican support, especially from fiscal hawks who want to see less spending and more rooting out of “waste, fraud, and abuse” in the federal government. But only two Republicans voted against the CR, with a rare display of unity between the conservative Freedom Caucus and House GOP leadership. The caucus has said during the shutdown it is “100% behind” Johnson and has supported the passage of a clean CR, a move that may have been unthinkable in previous funding battles.
“Obviously we are waiting to hear what the Senate does and hopefully the Senate Democrats decide to change their mind and reopen the government, but until then, the Republicans are standing together and just waiting for the Democrats to reopen the government so we can get down to the negotiations we need to do to pass our appropriations bills and all the other issues in Congress,” said Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), chairman of the Freedom Caucus and cardinal of Agriculture appropriations.
Appropriators themselves do not prefer CRs, preferring to pass the 12 bills as their committee is instructed. But, as Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH) noted, the CR would restore “regular order” to the government by giving the cardinals more time to do their work.
“This is one of the cleanest CRs I have ever seen,” Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID), cardinal of Interior appropriations, said. “Passing a short-term funding extension brings us one step closer to restoring regular funding, but unfortunately, Democrats do not want that.”
“All of this could be solved if Democrats would just stop the partisan politics,” Rep. John Carter (R-TX), cardinal of Veterans Affairs appropriations, echoed.
Many appropriators noted that the 12 subcommittees had already done their work, so when the government reopened, they could move forward swiftly to get all of the bills to President Donald Trump’s desk.
“The whole reason the House did not waste time and took action to pass the clean, nonpartisan CR on September 19 was to avoid a pointless government shutdown and allow us plenty of time before November 21 to get all the appropriations bills done,” Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN), cardinal of Energy and Water appropriations, said.
“The more time they waste, the worse things get for the American people,” Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR), cardinal of Transportation appropriations, echoed.
Does the House need to move the CR date?
As time inches closer to the Nov. 21 deadline, the House will be under pressure to address the three-bill minibus sent over by the Senate and get its nine other bills over the finish line.
Valadao said he thinks he could meet the Nov. 21 deadline for his Legislative Branch bill. However, other larger bills, like Labor/Health and Human Services, will likely take more time and could require a new CR date.
“We cannot negotiate anything with the government closed,” Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), cardinal of National Security appropriations, said. “If Chuck Schumer reopens the government, we could start moving the first bills today.”
During the shutdown, there have been no hearings in the House or bills brought to the floor. Johnson has said there’s no point in bringing Republicans back to Capitol Hill if they hold up their end of the situation.
In the Senate, Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) attempted to move forward with a vote on a full-year Defense appropriations bill on Thursday to gain some favor with Senate Democrats on the edge about the shutdown. But the motion failed to reach the 60-vote filibuster, and the bill has stalled.
The bill’s defeat in the Senate certainly doesn’t help the argument that the House should come back and hold hearings or votes on appropriations. Appropriators don’t even think bringing the House back would be helpful.
“We finished moving all 12 bills out of committee before we left in [September]. So there’s really no reason to have more hearings now,” Valadao said. “Staff can work during a normal shutdown, or when we’re getting close to a government shutdown, appropriation staff is very active. But since the House already sent a bill to the Senate, a clean CR, there’s nothing we can do.”
IT’S GROUNDHOG DAY ON CAPITOL HILL WITH NO SHUTDOWN SOLUTION IN SIGHT
Reps. Ken Calvert (R-CA) and Robert Aderholt (R-AL), cardinals of Defense and Labor/HHS appropriations, respectively, said the work of appropriations cardinals “never stops.” Staffers are monitoring agency operations, tracking the shutdown’s impact, and addressing the close of fiscal year 2025. He dismissed the need for a new CR date as of now.
“Our work hasn’t stopped, and we’re ready to move the moment the Senate acts. We don’t need a new CR date; we need the Senate to function,” Aderholt said.