Familiar fractures in the House Republican conference appeared when lawmakers revolted against a spending bill less than 24 hours after Speaker Mike Johnson advanced a stopgap measure to prevent a government shutdown.
Over a dozen Republicans joined with Democrats to block a spending bill that funds the Department of Justice, trade and science from reaching a floor vote. The hiccup caused lawmakers to abruptly head home for the Thanksgiving recess.
So far, the House has advanced seven out of a dozen spending bills but has struggled to move the remainder because of GOP in-fighting.
Republican no votes mostly came from members of the arch-conservative House Freedom Caucus, who argued that the spending bill was “weak” and lacked conservative policy wins, like not preventing funding for the FBI’s new headquarters in Maryland.
House Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania said that the rebellion was a response to the “failure theater” in Congress, meaning that appropriators and House leadership purposefully set up bill amendments to fail.
“We’ve had enough, we’re sending a shot across the bow. We do this in good faith. We want to see these bills move,” Mr. Perry said. “We want to see good righteous policy, but we’re not going to be part of the failure theater anymore.”
Torpedoing that spending bill also halted legislation meant to refreeze $6 billion in Iranian oil assets that were freed up in a prisoner-swap deal negotiated by the White House.
Critics blamed the deal for giving Iran money to finance Hamas terrorists’ deadly Oct. 7 raid on Israel. The White House, which temporarily froze the Iranian assets after the terror attack, insists the money will not go to terrorism.
Rep. Chip Roy, Texas Republican, objected to the bill’s limited scope, particularly after the U.S. opened up a 120-day waiver that allows Iraq to pay Iran for electricity. The waiver is estimated to send about $10 billion to Iran.
“While it was a bill that was targeted towards the $6 billion, it paled in comparison to amendments that we have that would have actually checked Iran the way they need to be checked by getting rid of the waiver authority that this administration is abusing to side with Iran over Israel,” he said.
Other Republicans said the infighting only makes it harder to get conservative policy wins.
“This is retaliation,” said Rep. Dusty Johnson, South Dakota Republican. “When something doesn’t go their way, they decide that they want to blow something up, and I guess this is today’s fatality.”
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.