GOP-led House recesses without spending plan 8 days before shutdown as national debt nears $34T

The U.S. government ran a deficit of $65 billion in the month of October alone as the House Republican Conference continues to struggle to pass a budget that follows through on their campaign promise to reduce the size of the federal government and cut the deficit, which totaled $1.7 trillion last year.

House GOP leaders so far had to call off planned votes on two federal appropriations bills for fiscal year 2024 even though their party holds the majority in the chamber. Lawmakers face a government shutdown deadline on Nov. 17. The scheduled vote on the transportation and housing appropriations bill was cancelled on Tuesday evening and the planned vote on the financial services appropriations bill was delayed on Thursday.

There are currently disagreements among Republicans with regard to the cost of several provisions, including Amtrak funding, according to GOP congressional sources. Moderate Republicans had also raised concerns about anti-abortion language related to Washington, D.C. that is in the financial services appropriations bill.

The House is now in recess.

Prior to those cancelled votes, the agriculture funding bill had failed to pass on the House floor due to "steep cuts to programs supporting rural development and conservation efforts that moderate Republicans refused to back," according to Reuters.

Newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson proposed passing a short term spending bill to give Republicans more time to pass the remaining 5 of 12 separate appropriations bills. However, as House Republicans race against the shutdown clock, the language of the proposed Continuing Resolution has still not been released, in part, because factions of the conference are still at odds on spending. 

House Republicans took back the House majority in 2022 after building their platform on a campaign to reduce the size of government by cutting federal spending. The party won a slim majority of 221-212.

Despite the rising deficit and debt, Biden’s position has been that he would veto spending bills that reduce spending more than the agreement he hashed out with former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Their agreement would keep domestic spending at current levels for fiscal year 2024 and limit its growth to 1% annually. The agreement was formally implemented as the Financial Responsibility Act but not all House Republicans voted in favor of it, arguing that it doesn't go far enough to get the deficit under control.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., signaled on Wednesday that spending cuts won't be supported by Senate Democrats.

"I implore Speaker Johnson and his House GOP colleagues to learn from the fiasco of a month ago: hard-right proposals, hard-right slashing cuts, hard-right poison pills that have zero support from Dems will only make a shutdown more likely. I hope they don’t go down that path in the weeks to come," he said.

House conservatives have been pushing for federal spending bills that eventually return to pre-COVID pandemic funding levels. The government ran a deficit at that time but not as large as the deficit last fiscal year. The deficit was $984 billion in fiscal year 2019.

Many of these conservative Republican House members have said they would not support any bill that continues federal spending at the current level.

While Democrats hold a majority in the Senate and President Biden is in the White House, conservatives like Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., want to see the House pass significant deficit reduction and put the ball in the Senate’s court.

He told Just the News that the House should "make the Senate own what they what they do" on spending.

"If it's inaction, let them own it," he said. "They only have three of their [appropriations] bills out. We've got seven of the 12 appropriation bills already passed."

Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., one of the 8 conservatives who voted to remove Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as speaker last month, said Johnson should try push a spending bill through the House with spending cuts in the hopes that the Democrats will accept it to avoid a government shutdown.

“We've got to get our spending under control and our border secured,” he said, according to Bloomberg.

According to the House Appropriations Committee, only 3 out of 7 appropriations bills that have passed so far in the GOP-led House would reduce federal spending from current levels. The committee provided Just the News with data showing that the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies of 2024 appropriations bill reduces spending by 35% compared to fiscal year 2023 levels. The legislative branch spending bill, which funds congressional operations, reduces spending in that area by 4.7% from the 2023 enacted level and the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs bill cuts $16.4 billion or 12% below the fiscal year 2023 enacted level.

In the past, many House Republicans had said they would oppose funding new FBI headquarters but a new site has been chosen and the project has not been defunded. Some House Republicans offered amendments to the fiscal year 2024 appropriations bills that passed to defund the salaries of federal officials in federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, but nearly all defeated by Republicans and Democrats alike.

House Republicans targeted the additional IRS funding called for in the Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act as a way to pay for $14.3 billion in foreign assistance to Israel as that country battles the terrorist organization Hamas. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that these cuts would add $26.7 billion to deficits over the next decade.

Bank of America recently projected, based on CBO data, that the U.S. national debt will reach $50 trillion by 2033 on the current trajectory. The national debt is currently approaching $34 trillion.