Conservatives in the House believe they may have found the secret path to force instant, deep cuts in government spending.

The conservatives say all it would take is for the House to refuse to fund “unauthorized” programs — the 1,100 line items in the spending bills that Congress approves every year, even though the specific legislative authority for the underlying agency or program lapsed years ago.

The idea has been percolating on Capitol Hill for years, but until now it had been seen as far-fetched, a kind of right-wing nuclear option for cutting spending.

That’s changing.

Key Republicans are floating the idea in the wake of the budget deal between President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, saying it’s a shortcut to eliminating billions of dollars from the annual budget.

“This is a real plan to put downward pressure on spending after the horrible [McCarthy-Biden] debt bill,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz, Florida Republican. “We should be doing this ASAP.”

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis said a review of unauthorized programs should be part of any discussion to rein in government spending and the national debt, but that it should be targeted to root out waste.

“The lack of action to rein in unauthorized appropriations is costing Americans hundreds of billions in tax dollars,” the New York Republican said.

As with so much in Washington, the mechanics are a bit arcane.

Congress holds the power of the purse and generally divides that into two pieces. On the one hand, it creates and sets policies for government agencies, or in D.C.-speak it “authorizes” them. On the other hand, it allocates — or appropriates — money to carry out those policies.

But Congress being Congress, lawmakers often can’t agree on updating policies, or sometimes just never get around to it. So big things, like the Endangered Species Act or the Justice Department, haven’t been officially authorized in years.

Under a House rule, no unauthorized program is supposed to be funded. And without funding, the program can’t operate.

Lawmakers don’t let that dampen things. They regularly waive the no-authorization rule as part of the rules governing debate on spending bills.

But what if they didn’t waive the rule this year?

Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho, a senior Republican and chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees Interior Department spending, raised the possibility during budget hearings with agency chiefs this spring.

“We technically are not supposed to fund anything that is not authorized. Traditionally they waived that rule when they do a rue and bring it to the floor. What are you going to do if the Rules Committee says ‘No, we’re not going to waive that provision’?” Mr. Simpson said.

The Congressional Budget Office tracks unauthorized spending and said 1,108 authorizations expired before the current fiscal year, and 355 more will expire during the year.

CBP calculated that $510 billion was spent in 2023 on activities whose authorization had expired.

Rep. Andrew Clyde, Georgia Republican, took the issue directly to Attorney General Merrick Garland.

“In your opinion, should unauthorized agencies or unauthorized programs in the federal government receive funding through this Appropriations Committee?” he prodded.

Mr. Garland seemed stumped but replied: “At a high level of generality, it seems like a syllogism. If it’s unauthorized, it shouldn’t have appropriations.”

Mr. Clyde then sprung the trap. He pointed out that the Justice Department itself hasn’t been reauthorized since 2009.

“How can I, in good conscience, appropriate taxpayers’ money to an unauthorized agency?” the congressman said.

Later, in a statement to The Washington Times, Mr. Clyde said it was “greatly concerning” that Congress has allowed programs, agencies and entire departments to receive money for years without being directly authorized.

“As a new member of the Appropriations Committee, I’m committed to conducting thorough oversight of expired authorizations and unauthorized appropriations as part of the ongoing process to eliminate woke, weaponized, and wasteful spending,” he told The Times.

The office of Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, didn’t respond to requests for comment for this story.

The House GOP’s rules package passed earlier this year required each committee to submit a list of unauthorized spending programs by the beginning of March.

GOP leaders plan to use the list as a blueprint for spending cuts in the upcoming government funding battle.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Washington Republican, said she plans to use her position as chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to go after “zombie” programs.

“I intend to lead by example and start with the programs under our committee’s jurisdiction,” she said.

Blocking spending on unauthorized projects is a blunt instrument. It’s unlikely that many lawmakers actually want to see the Justice Department outright defunded.

But Peter Hanson, a political science professor at Grinnell College in Iowa, said the threat could be a viable negotiating tactic. Still, it will require unity out of a conference that’s riven with divisions over how far to push the spending issue.

“The real question for the GOP is what it hopes to gain from such tactics. For some members, the fight is the goal. For others, hardball tactics are used to gain leverage in budget negotiations to achieve a larger end,” Mr. Hanson said.

It wouldn’t take much for a few Republicans to force the spending-authorization issue, simply by refusing to vote for the rules of debate.

Those are almost always party-line votes that the majority wins. But given the narrow GOP edge in the House, if a handful of Republicans joined Democrats in voting against a rule they could defeat it — effectively blocking the spending bills from reaching the floor.

Conservatives did just that earlier this month.

Angered by the McCarthy-Biden debt deal, conservatives refused to back a rules-of-debate package, halting floor action on a series of GOP bills. The conservatives relented after Mr. McCarthy promised to reach for deeper spending cuts.

• Haris Alic can be reached at halic@washingtontimes.com.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.