A faction of House conservatives on Thursday again torpedoed the annual bill to fund the Pentagon, giving a black eye to Speaker Kevin McCarthy who said he was confident he had the votes to advance the legislation.

This is the second time this week that Republican lawmakers blocked the defense spending bill from going to a debate on the House floor.

It was another setback for Mr. McCarhty as he tries to wrangle his Republicans to pass annual spending bills and a stopgap funding bill to avoid a partial government shutdown on Sept. 30.

Mr. McCarthy, California Republican, said after an hourslong conference meeting Wednesday night that he had flipped two GOP lawmakers who helped sink the Defense spending bill. Those two GOP lawmakers did flip in favor of the bill, but others replaced them.

The bill, one of a dozen annual spending bills needed to fund the federal government, failed by a 212-216 vote, with six Republicans joining all Democrats in voting against the measure.

The GOP lawmakers that defied Mr. McCarthy included Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Eli Crane of Arizona, Tom Cole of Oklahoma, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Matt Rosendale of Montana, and Dan Bishop of North Carolina.

Mr. Bishop, a member of the House Freedom Caucus who had voted against the rule earlier this week, said that it should have been no surprise that he was not in favor of advancing the bill.

He and other members of the Freedom Caucus are demanding a topline number for overall spending at $1.471 trillion — a number that Mr. McCarthy pitched in a stopgap spending measure to win support from the Freedom Caucus.

Mr. Bishop said that it only gets harder for leadership to keep pushing forward after continued failures.

“If you’re the person who’s failed 10 times, you’ve got to be the person to come forward with something constructive saying, ‘here’s how we’re going to do it. And here’s how you can count on it and rely on it,’” Mr. Bishop said.

• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washigtontimes.com.