House GOP Divided Over Funding, Policies as They Push First Bill, Delay Second

House GOP leaders are struggling to find common ground among lawmakers on funding and policies as they pass a first bill but delay a second.

Republicans also dismissed lawmakers for a six-week break from Washington as conservatives demand more spending cuts and internal division becomes more apparent over social issues such as abortion.

House GOP Divided Over Funding Policies

In a statement on Thursday afternoon, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said on the floor that votes are no longer expected in the House the following day. He added that they will be finished for the August work period.

The House's decision to adjourn for a month and a half amid the GOP stalemate suggests a rocky September period. It is a time when lawmakers will come back to the Hill with only three weeks of leeway to stave off a government shutdown.

On the other hand, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's leadership team was hoping that the GOP could pass as many of their 12 annual funding bills as possible on the floor this month. They are aiming for a show of Republican unity that could help boost the House in a coming standoff with the Senate over federal funding, as per Politico.

House GOP lawmakers are now leaving the Capitol on a note of disarray rather than unity, having only passed a single vote to tout a veterans funding bill and having two spending measures still stuck in committee.

McCarthy suggested that the whipping effort will continue when GOP lawmakers come back to town in the middle of September. When asked about potential plans for moving forward with Republican funding bills, the House speaker said that they would pass them, similar to the first bill.

On Thursday, in a 219-211 vote, the House passed the only Republican funding measure that the party's leaders could build support around before the scheduled break. It was a bill that provides funding to the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction projects.

Dispute Among Lawmakers

The first bill included a fund of $155.7 billion and will move on to the Democratic-led Senate, which has already crafted its own version of the measure. On the other hand, the second bill, which was delayed, was a $25.3 billion spending bill that focuses on agriculture, rural development, and the Food and Drug Administration, according to Reuters.

The situation comes as the House and Senate must each pass identical appropriations before they can be signed into law by United States President Joe Biden that would help lawmakers prevent a government shutdown.

McCarthy and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer also met on Thursday to discuss the prospects for compromise spending measures and other legislation. The former later added that they are both committed to passing appropriation bills on time.

The disputes come amid political tensions and as Democrats, who argue that Republicans set spending levels below what McCarthy and Biden agreed on, are opposing all the spending bills. The second top Democrat in the House, Rep. Katherine Clark, said that the situation is because of "extremists" who are the conference hostage, said the New York Times.