House Republicans have pulled their spending bill for the second time this week, abandoning the massive cuts to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) proposed by the annual funding legislation.
GOP leadership pulled the bill moments before a House vote on Thursday after determining there wouldn’t be enough Republican support to pass the legislation. The move is the latest amid an intraparty struggle to unite the conference behind the conservative package, which included clawing back more than $10 billion in IRS funding.
“The fact that Republicans were unable to pass their own spending bill today is indicative of the deep divisions within the party,” political analyst Craig Agranoff told Newsweek. “There is a growing rift between moderate Republicans and hardline conservatives, and this rift is making it difficult for Republicans to govern effectively.”
Newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled the GOP measure days after he won the gavel, signaling his willingness to directly attack one of President Joe Biden’s signature achievements. The IRS funding that the Republican-led bill targets stems from the money allocated by Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. The White House has already said that the president would veto the appropriations bill.
Olivier Douliery/AFP
While the bill faced opposition from moderate Republicans and the GOP’s far-right flank, House Republicans are unified on cutting IRS money. Their inability to pass the spending bill due to other factors, however, puts that goal on hold.
Republicans have been steadfast in their mission to slash IRS funding, arguing that the funds make the agency too powerful and that cutting its budget would make laws more fair to taxpayers. Democrats, on the other hand, argue that eliminating the money would benefit wealthy taxpayers and corporations at the expense of working families.
“The fact that Republicans were unable to pass their own spending bill today is a sign that the party is in disarray,” Agranoff said. “It is also a sign that Mike Johnson may not be the best candidate to lead the Republican Party in the future.
“Johnson is a hardline conservative. His inability to unite the Republican caucus and pass a spending bill could damage his reputation as a leader.
House Republicans are also divided over the bill’s abortion-related provisions and FBI funding.
Centrist members of the conference have expressed concerns about one provision that seeks to block Washington, D.C., from enforcing a law that protects employees from workplace discrimination based on their reproductive health decisions.
Representative Marc Molinaro of New York this week said Congress needs “to be much more respectful of the difficult decision that women have to make,” noting that “there’s probably about five to eight of us that have expressed a concern regarding the one provision being placed in the bill.”
At the same time, the GOP’s more conservative members want to strike FBI money that they think emboldens the political weaponization of which that they’ve accused the agency.
“I don’t believe that the FBI deserves a massive new headquarters or Washington field office,” Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida said this week while introducing his amendment that sought to bar the bureau from using federal funding for a new headquarters.
But Representative Steve Womack of Arkansas disagreed, calling it bad policy for lawmakers “to deny a federal agency that is in serious need, in my opinion, of an improvement to their headquarters.”
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.