(C) Common Dreams
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House GOP hard-liners lay out stopgap funding demands [1]

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Date: 2023-08-21

The hard-right House Freedom Caucus announced Monday that the group would oppose the stopgap funding measure needed to avert a partial government shutdown next month unless it includes conservatives' policy priorities relating to overall spending levels, the border, the Justice Department and the military.

The caucus’ position highlights the obstacles that Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., faces next month with just a dozen legislative days after lawmakers return to Washington until the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. Any controversial add-ons risk losing support from all or almost all Democrats and even some GOP moderates; if all Democrats are present and voting "no," McCarthy won't be able to lose more than four votes on his side.

In its statement Monday, the Freedom Caucus said that supporting a "clean" continuing resolution, which typically extends the prior fiscal year's funding rate, “would be an affirmation of the current [fiscal 2023] spending level grossly increased by the lame-duck December 2022 omnibus spending bill that we all vehemently opposed just seven months ago.”

The group vowed to oppose any spending bill that does not include the House-passed immigration and border security bill; does not “address the unprecedented weaponization of the Justice Department and FBI” that the group says has targeted political opponents; and “end the Left’s cancerous woke policies in the Pentagon.”

The border bill passed on a 219-213 vote, with two Republicans voting against it — California’s John Duarte and Kentucky’s Thomas Massie, a member of the House Freedom Caucus. Massie and Duarte each opposed the legislation over language that would require all employers to electronically verify that new hires can work legally in the U.S.

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[1] Url: https://rollcall.com/2023/08/21/house-gop-hard-liners-lay-out-stopgap-funding-demands/

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