House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., is pitching a "minibus" to fund parts of government that can be agreed upon quickly to keep those funded as spending talks approach the deadline that might lead to a government shutdown.
The "minibus" would include appropriation bills on military construction and Veteran's Affairs (MilCon-VA), defense, Department of Homeland Security, and disaster relief funding, GOP conference members told The Hill on Wednesday after a meeting.
House fiscal conservatives had sought to split off all appropriations bills into separate votes to keep the scrutiny on spending at a maximum, but House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government Chair Steve Womack, R-Ark., says the "minibus" proposal would "get the conference to coalesce around something that we can all come to agreement on."
"We ought to be able to do this post haste and move in a positive direction," he told The Hill. "It also sends a signal to the Senate that we're serious about what we're doing and we have some solutions.
"We're in a difficult spot. We got a big challenge ahead of us. Are we going to be equal to the task?"
Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., told The Hill he would like to see top-line spending numbers before starting to pass appropriations packages.
"I think a lot of my colleagues share that view that we want to see how the entire puzzle fits together," he said.
But there can be some movement on packaging spending together, House Freedom Caucus member Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., added.
"The devil's in the details," he told The Hill. "Coupling Homeland with disaster relief probably works."
The House conservatives' appropriations goal was to curb spending, first and foremost, according to Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C.
"I'll vote against everything until we get fundamental delivery on the basic promise that was made in January, which is spending cuts in exchange for allowing defense to rise," Bishop told The Hill.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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