‘You’re yelling at us’: Tensions reach fever pitch in spending hearing

Tensions boiled over at a House hearing Wednesday as Democrats and Republicans faced off over government funding in light of the recent deal President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) reached on spending limits. 

The Republican-led House Appropriations Committee voted along party lines Wednesday afternoon to adopt a bill to fund the departments of Agriculture, Rural Development, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

But appropriators adjourned before approving subcommittee allocations after both sides went back and forth over what a bipartisan agreement secured weeks ago that set caps on funding should mean for the appropriations process this year. 

During the hearing, Democrats vented their frustration with Republicans after GOP negotiators announced plans earlier this week to mark up spending bills at a topline level much lower than the agreed-upon caps between Biden and McCarthy.

Republican leaders have insisted the caps represent a “ceiling” for spending that allows for room to go further below, while Democrats say a GOP-backed move to revert funding to fiscal 2022 levels undercuts the budget deal between both sides. 

“You will not pretend that you’re following a deal that over a majority of the majority voted for?” said Rep. Steny Hoyer (Md.), top Democrat on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government.

“Do you think any of us would have made a deal if we thought your [2022] number was the deal? What kind of deal is that? What kind of respect for yourselves is that?” he added.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, also bristled over the GOP plan.

“My colleagues, these allocations are either an attempt to appease the same reckless faction that would rather have us default than uphold our constitutional duty,” she said, “or they are evidence that the same Republican members who voted for the debt deal no longer support it.”

Leaders on both sides agreed to spending caps for fiscal 2024 as part of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA). Congress passed the bill earlier this month to raise the debt limit before an early June deadline to prevent a national default, but not without several proposals aimed at curbing spending to buy necessary GOP support. 

However, since the bill’s passage, a growing number of conservatives have come out against the bipartisan plan, with some pushing for Republicans to revert funding back to fiscal 2022 levels — which is estimated to cut current spending levels by more than $100 billion. 

Defending the party’s plan Wednesday, Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), who heads the subcommittee tasked with crafting the agriculture funding proposal being considered, fired back at Hoyer while discussing the national debt.

“It’s now $31.6 trillion. It will be $32.6 [trillion] rapidly as this Treasury Secretary has to float a trillion dollars in bonds in the next few weeks,” Harris said. “I would suggest to the gentleman from Maryland, that that actually makes a difference in how this committee has to approach things.”

“We are in difficult times now. We can print pretend they’re not. We can pretend we can print all the money in the world,” Harris said. “We can pretend that inflation doesn’t occur when the Federal Reserve puts a trillion dollars on their balance sheet. We can pretend that, but that’s not reality.”

Moments after Harris spoke, however, DeLauro again took aim at Republicans, arguing that “domestic investment is not a driver of the debt” and that “revenue was not put on the table at all” after GOP leadership drew red lines around tax increases on any Americans, as Democrats have called for more tax proposals targeting the wealthy.

House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Kay Granger (R-Texas), then said Democrats were “yelling” at Republicans and that she was “very disappointed to be treated this way.”

Other Republicans also shot back at Democrats, including Rep. Michael Cloud (R-Texas), who said to the other side: “If you want to take the high road and speak to some sort of false piety, I suggest that you get your facts straight first.”

“Today we’ve been called cruel. We’ve been called draconian,” Cloud said. “We’ve been told we’re trying to take food out of the mouths of children, we’ve been told by people who don’t know how to define what a woman is that we’re against women, all these different kinds of things, and then we’re supposed to be told to be respectful and honorable in some mad tirade.”

“This is unconscionable. And it’s ridiculous that it’s happening in this committee,” he added.

Appropriators are set to meet again early Thursday and are expected to again consider subcommittee allocations, and further spending legislation.