Dem
51
GOP
49
House Republicans would very much like to pass spending bills for FY 2024-25. First, because they know that if there is no budget in place by the time the new fiscal year begins, the current budget will largely dictate ongoing spending, and the priorities of Joe Biden will remain well-supported. Second, because they would like to show the country, heading into the election, that House Republicans can actually govern.
The only fly in the ointment here is... House Republicans can't actually govern. Sure, they can come together on the occasional articles of impeachment or resolution advising Kamala Harris that she's personally responsible for everything that's gone wrong since the Black Plague, but they can't actually produce viable legislation. Go ahead, name one meaningful bill that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has shepherded through the House based on Republican votes. We're waiting. The meaningful bills that HAVE passed the lower chamber during Johnson's tenure were passed with both Democratic and Republican votes, normally more of the former than the latter. This will happen when one leads a conference where the margin of error is less than 10, and the number of nutters is considerably more than 10.
The fundamental division in the Republican conference was on display during the wrangling over the spending bills. On one side were the nutters. They wanted to do what they always want to do, and to pass spending bills loaded with messaging amendments (The State Department cannot pay to stage drag shows! No federal funding for schools that teach evolution! No abortions in space!) and with drastic cuts to social programs. Such bills will never get a vote in the Senate, with the looney-tooniest stuff giving Democrats plenty of cover for tossing the legislation in the garbage.
On the other side were the more sensible Republicans. Their preferred strategy was to pass bills that reflected Republican priorities, but that were within the realm of reason. In other words, they wanted to make an opening bid, in hopes of steering the overall negotiations with Senate Democrats in a Republican direction. And, in the end, the more sensible Republicans torpedoed the crazypants stuff, while the nutty Republicans torpedoed the more reasonable stuff, and so no spending bills were passed. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), who is on the more sensible side, observed that many of his colleagues "want the appearance of fighting more than they want conservative wins" and that they would rather "get nothing than something."
So, Johnson & Co. have given up. Indeed, the House isn't even in session right now, and won't be back until... September 9. Then, they will be back for a total of 13 workdays before adjourning for the entire month of October and the first two weeks of November, so that members can campaign. The government's fiscal year begins on October 1, and so House Republicans are going to be stuck agreeing to a continuing resolution, unless they decide they'd like to shut down the government 5 weeks before an election. (Z)