GOP Freshmen Uneasy About Latest Stopgap Bill

Freshmen Republicans in the House are increasingly worried that party leaders will back down on spending cuts and might oppose the latest bill to avoid a government shutdown, one lawmaker says.

Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kansas) said Saturday he will oppose a three-week continuing resolution from House Republicans to fund the government and signaled other freshmen may follow suit.

The three-week spending bill "could be much harder to pass than the last one" because it fails to make the cuts needed to slash the deficit, Huelskamp told The Hill.

The House is set to vote on the three-week bill Tuesday. It would cut $6 billion in federal spending.

If another spending bill is not passed by March 18, the government will shut down.

Although Huelskamp said he "appreciates the strategy of cutting a few billion [from spending] every few weeks," he said there's growing concern, especially among freshmen and members of the Republican Study Group, that lawmakers will fail to cut anywhere near the $61 billion approved by the House last month.

Huelskamp noted that the three-week continuing resolution (CR) contains funding for the healthcare law and Planned Parenthood, budget lines that many conservatives strongly oppose.

The most recent stopgap proposal “omits many of the priorities the American people demanded we pass,” including the elimination of some EPA regulations, repealing healthcare and defunding Planned Parenthood, he said.

The House-approved CR cutting $61 billion was rejected by the Senate this week. Talks are ongoing between the White House, Democrats and Republicans to strike a deal on a spending bill funding the government for the rest of the fiscal year.

Democrats and Republicans remain about $50 billion apart on how much spending should be cut this year, and each side is pushing the other to take the next step.

"We were elected to make bold changes to federal spending and to reverse our unsustainable deficits," Huelskamp said. "By allowing President Obama and Senator Reid to stall a budget they should have completed six months ago, we are being distracted from even bigger tasks.”

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