Pelosi Could Use Funding Bill to ‘Tie Republicans’ Hands’ Next Congress: House GOP

Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) speaks to the media with members of the Republican Study Committee about Iran in Washington on April 21, 2021. (Joshua Roberts/Getty Images)

House Republicans are warning that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) could use a must-pass stopgap spending measure to “tie Republicans’ hands” during fiscal year 2023, even if the party takes the majority.

Capitol Hill is once again racing against the clock to iron out a stopgap spending measure, or continuing resolution (CR) before a government shutdown on Oct. 1.

Because the deadline is only about a month away from midterms, tensions are high for both parties as negotiations continue in both the House and Senate, with infighting breaking out on both sides of the aisle.

Now, Republicans are warning—and promising to oppose—any CR that would run out before Jan. 3, 2023, the first day of the newly-elected 118th Congress. Such a CR, Republicans warn, would allow Democrats to continue to fund President Joe Biden’s “failed agenda” over the wishes of a potential GOP House majority.

“Any spending that expires before Jan[.] 3 would allow Dems to tie Republicans’ hands next congress,” explained Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) in a statement on Twitter. “Voters will have fired Speaker Pelosi, but she could still decide all government funding for FY2023.”

In a memo (pdf) to members of the Republican Study Committee, chairman Jim Banks (R-Ind.) wrote: “The sun is setting on Nancy Pelosi’s speakership.”

Pelosi’s ‘Last Hurrah’

Still, Banks said, Pelosi was hoping for a “last hurrah” by hijacking the CR with provisions that would not be supported by Republicans.

Among these provisions, according to Banks, are: “A pathway to citizenship for the ~76,000 Afghan evacuees without LPR status,” despite the fact that the Department of Homeland Security inspector general found that “the Biden admin failed to vet Afghan evacuees, and a whistleblower reported that the Biden admin flew 324 suspected terrorists into the US.”

Further, Banks said, Pelosi’s CR includes “$22.4 billion in COVID ‘emergency’ funds” but “includes no offsets and condones the White House’s abuse of its ‘pandemic emergency’ powers.”

In addition, the CR would grant Ukraine more financial aid for its defense than would go to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). Though the United States has already sent tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine to aid its ground war with Russia, the CR, Banks said, will send Ukraine an additional $11.7 billion while granting the DOD only $7.2 billion.

Banks also said that Pelosi’s CR includes a $500 million “taxpayer bailout for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve ahead of anticipated shortfalls caused by the Biden admin.”

In an effort to lower skyrocketing energy costs, which Republicans have blamed on Biden’s hostile attitude towards oil and natural gas fossil fuels, the Biden administration made the controversial decision to pull millions of barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). The SPR was created to ensure that the country would not face gas shortages at the levels seen during the gas crisis under former President Jimmy Carter, and even some Democrats—most notably Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.)—blasted Biden at the time for not reversing his policies on fossil fuels and instead relying on the SPR.

Another $4.5 billion of the CR, Banks said, would go toward monkeypox.

“Many Republicans may [be] hesitant to increase funding for public health agencies given their recent virus response record,” Banks explained, citing long-held GOP dissatisfaction with the federal response to COVID-19.

Rallying Republicans

Banks argues that fighting Pelosi’s CR is an important test case for Republicans to distinguish themselves from Democrats, who have had unilateral control of the government since 2021.

“Over the next three weeks, Democrats plan to attack American energy, increase the deficit and further fuel inflation, give amnesty to tens of thousands of unvetted refugees from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, strip voters of their say in funding the government for an entire year and further abuse Joe Biden’s permanent pandemic power,” Banks said of the CR.

“This is our last opportunity to explain why Democrats’ agenda has failed, what Republicans will do differently and why voters should give us a governing mandate in November,” he continued. “Let’s use it.”

The position seems to be shared by many House Republicans.

In a post on Twitter, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said that he is leading the House GOP effort to ensure the passage of a “clean” CR that maintains current spending levels and that will expire on or after Jan. 3 so that a potential GOP Congress will not be bound by Democrats’ year-long spending resolution for fiscal year 2023.

In an op-ed for Fox News, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) echoed the demands of their House colleagues, writing: “It’s time for Republicans to stand united and demand that Congress pass a clean continuing resolution (CR) that simply maintains current federal spending levels—and not a penny more—until a new Congress begins.”

Because Republicans are in the minority in the lower chamber, there is little they will be able to do to counter a CR that makes wide-reaching changes to spending levels or ends before Jan. 3.

However, if Republicans in the Senate withhold their support, as Scott, Cruz, and Lee suggest, Democrats would find themselves forced back to the negotiating table if they hope to stave off a government shutdown.