House Republican leaders were forced to pull the defense appropriations bill from the floor Wednesday after they couldn’t get enough far-right House Freedom Caucus members to support the procedural rule.
“The Republican Party always wants to defend the nation and always wants to support our military,” House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry (R-Pa.) told reporters on Tuesday, as Defense News reported. “But what we’re not going to do is say that we’re going to pass things without knowing what the plan is and knowing that it leads to increased spending that is crippling our citizens.”
Freedom Caucus members have been frustrated since Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden set spending caps as part of a debt ceiling deal earlier this year. They want non-defense spending lower than what was established in that agreement.
That puts them at odds with the majority of their conference, House Democrats, the Senate and the White House, seemingly increasing the likelihood of a government shutdown at the end of the month.
Getty Images photo by Drew Angerer
