Fiscal hawks are split over how to avoid a government shutdown in the fall as the House struggles to pass all of its annual spending bills.

At least two House rabble-rousers are threatening to oppose a continuing resolution, or funding patch, as the regular appropriations process sputters on the floor, with just two of the 12 annual spending bills passed before an August recess.

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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) flat-out rejected the idea of a CR on Tuesday, putting House leaders on “notice” weeks in advance of a Sept. 30 deadline.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), a Trump antagonist aligned with Greene, also doubted that he could support a continuing resolution, which keeps government funding levels flat.

“Well, I didn’t vote for the last CR, so I’m probably not going to vote for this one,” he told the Washington Examiner. “If it’s a CR of the CR, it’s still Biden’s budget.”

The red line was once commonplace among fiscal hawks, many of whom had never voted for a CR before President Donald Trump retook the White House. But members of the conservative Freedom Caucus have since warmed to the strategy as a way to slowly eat away at the size of the federal budget.

“A funding freeze in a setting of 2.7% inflation actually is a real cut in the size and scope of government and resets the CBO baseline,” House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris (R-MD) said, referring to Congress’s budget forecaster.

Harris outright endorsed a yearlong CR on Monday, while other caucus members interviewed by the Washington Examiner said they were open to the funding patch under the right conditions. In particular, House conservatives want to ensure the $9 billion in foreign aid and public broadcasting money that Congress axed last week, known as a rescission, does not get revived in a year-end CR.

“The devil’s in the details,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) said. “We’ve got to make sure the language on that is in place. I don’t want those decisions clawed back or spent when they shouldn’t be.”

Harris has also expressed an interest in attaching earmarks as part of a CR.

The impasse among House conservatives raises the prospects of a shutdown when funding runs out on Sept. 30. GOP leadership managed to convince all Republicans except Massie to support a House extension in March but can only lose three members on any party-line vote.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) sidestepped the prospect of a CR on Tuesday, emphasizing the share of spending wrapped up in two traditionally uncontroversial spending bills that passed in June and July.

“I’m not going to talk about a CR, because we’re still focused on trying to have a normal appropriations process,” he said. “The House has already passed over 60% of all government funding, and the Senate’s finally going to be taking up an appropriations bill this week. That’s something we haven’t seen in years.”

Republicans are nonetheless already preparing for the likelihood of a funding patch. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN), a Freedom Caucus member, said Harris discussed a CR with colleagues before announcing his support.

“I mean, everybody is,” Ogles said. “I think that’s on the horizon, that conversation. So you might as well get ahead of it.”

On paper, the House still has two months to usher its spending bills across the House floor, but in the face of Jeffrey Epstein-related gridlock, representatives will be leaving for a month-long recess on Wednesday.

That leaves just a handful of weeks to finish the appropriations process once members return in September.

Greene questioned the decision to leave for the August recess as she vowed to oppose a CR.

“Here’s the facts, under Speaker Johnson, he has passed CR after CR after CR, and the American people voted to give the Republicans control of the House and the Senate, and we have control, and we should not be voting on another Biden budget, another Democrat budget, and I’m not voting for another CR,” Greene said.

Johnson committed not to govern by CR shortly after he became speaker in 2023. However, dealing with party infighting and Democrats unwilling to vote for GOP-written legislation, he has repeatedly turned to the funding patches to avoid shutdowns.

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In the Senate, Republicans have begun to move forward with the appropriations process with Trump’s megabill now behind them, but they have their own obstacles due to the filibuster, which requires 60 votes and Democratic cooperation.

Senators were slated to cast a procedural vote Tuesday on the first of 12 bills, with GOP leadership hoping to bundle more into legislation that can move all at once, yet the $9 billion rescission, opposed by Democrats, has become a stumbling block in negotiations.