Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) hinted that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) could be courting more centrist Democratic representatives for their support of a continuing resolution or appropriations bills rather than working with Republican members of the House Freedom Caucus.
"I think that Speaker McCarthy has established that he is willing to buy Democrat votes instead of earning Republican votes already this year," he told the Washington Examiner. "And because we are not hearing conversations about what we were going to do to address those core questions, then that would lead us to believe that he's negotiating with someone."
DESANTIS POINTS TO RENEWED TERRORISM THREAT ON SOUTHERN BORDER ON 9/11 ANNIVERSARY
Rep. Ben Cline (R-VA) said the possibility of McCarthy opting to negotiate with House Democrats for their votes is a concern. But, he said, "I'm hopeful that we can work out our disagreements and move these bills with Republican support."
When it comes to appropriations, McCarthy is focused on passing as many bills as possible through regular order, which he believes puts Republicans in the best position when it comes to achieving certain spending and policy goals in the appropriations process. However, he is considering a continuing resolution in order to get that done and prevent omnibus legislation spearheaded by Senate Democrats.
His office did not provide comment to the Washington Examiner.
Rosendale indicated he was unsure where conversations stood with Republican House leadership. "We're not getting a lot of feedback from leadership as far as where we're going to proceed on the elephants in the room — and that is having those 12 or remaining 11 appropriation bills, the subtitle of the cost of them, and the policies that are contained within them," he said.
He noted that leadership had a significant amount of time over the August recess to discuss appropriations with Republican members. "The people that I know would be more than glad to come in and participate at whatever level was necessary in order to accomplish that," he claimed. The House Republican Conference has been "ready, willing, and able for the last six weeks to accomplish this. But if speaker doesn't make it a priority, then it doesn't happen," he added.
Cline expressed his frustration with the lack of discussion. "We all want to avoid a shutdown and move these appropriations bills in regular order, but we have to have a unified conference," he claimed. "And right now, we don't have that."
Conversations were occurring with leadership prior to recess, according to Cline. But he described them as "sporadic" over the break. Those conversations during the recess also weren't sufficient to negotiate through all the appropriations measures and produce a final product that would gain support from both House Freedom Caucus members and rank-and-file Republicans, per the congressman.
"My phone has been readily working, and I have not heard anything about what are we going to do to address the core questions before us, which are the appropriation bills, the cost of them, and the policies that are supposed to be contained within them," Rosendale claimed.
The schedule for the next several days "doesn't contain a lot of information about addressing those core issues," Rosendale said.
"So what is a priority, then — a bunch of suspension bills?" he asked.
Conservative members of the House Freedom Caucus have expressed wanting a return to pre-COVID-19 spending levels now that the coronavirus pandemic doesn't require the intervention it once did. Along with spending, there are certain policy preferences members have voiced support for including in appropriations. Both securing the southern border and refusing federal funds for prosecutors who have indicted former President Donald Trump are included in these.
Rosendale detailed that McCarthy promised during the series of votes it took for him to earn the speakership to "rein spending in." And "he also promised us that we were going to have the appropriation bills — that we were going to have regular order restored to Congress," he said.
Rosendale made clear he won't support a continuing resolution to fund the government temporarily while appropriations are decided.
He said a continuing resolution "leads to an omnibus [and] is no different than the leadership under Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)."
In a statement, Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA), a fellow House Freedom Caucus member, claimed, "America faces a precipice of doom" if the public's voices are ignored by "big-government establishment elites."
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
He denounced the idea of a continuing resolution, saying, "A CR does not save our country. America will not survive for our grandchildren’s generation if we do not correct course immediately.”
Spending bills must be passed by the House and Senate and signed by President Joe Biden ahead of Oct. 1 in order to avoid a government shutdown.