Ten House Republicans bucked party lines on Thursday to tank a full-year bill to fund the legislative branch over what members have described as concerns over lawmaker pay and overall funding.
Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), Bob Good (R-Va.), Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.), Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) and Keith Self (R-Texas) joined Democrats in voting down the bill.
The failure came even as three Democrats crossed party lines to back the bill with a majority of Republicans. Reps. Jared Golden (Maine), Donald Davis (N.C.) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.) were the three Democrats who voted for the bill.
The final 205-213 tally of the vote came as a surprise to some.
Asked about the vote on Thursday, Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.), head of the subcommittee that crafted the bill, said he was “not sure yet” why the measure went down.
“One member was pretty specific that COLA was an issue for him,” he said, referring to cost-of-living allowances for member pay. “I think Clyde pointed that out in his remarks. But the rest? I think there’s a few different issues.”
An earlier version of the bill could have ended a years-long freeze on pay raises for lawmakers. But it was changed to uphold the pause as it passed out of committee last month.
Clyde, a member of the House Freedom Caucus and the House Appropriations Committee, said at the time that an amendment adopted keeping intact the pay freeze had “constitutional problems.”
“If Congress wants to eliminate the annual COLA, Congress can certainly do so. But this cannot be done through the appropriations process and remain in compliance with the Constitution,” Clyde said then.
Valadao told reporters on Thursday that he knew the vote “was going to be close.”
“There were some members that were expressing concerns. But yeah, there’s a lot of members that weren’t here as well.”
Pressed about the issue of member pay, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) instead pointed to the funding increase in the bill. Hard-line conservatives have pressed for lower overall funding levels.
“There was an increase in the overall number, it was for things like increased security of the Capitol Police,” Scalise told The Hill.
“Very important things to do, but we knew that there would be some opposition. But like last year, you saw it with the agriculture bill,” he said, referring to the fiscal 2024 agricultural funding bill that went down last year amid concerns over abortion and funding. “I mean, the appropriations process is always difficult when most Democrats vote no.”
Republicans say their bill would allocate about $7 billion in total discretionary funding, up 5.6 percent from current levels, with increases for chamber operations, U.S. Capitol Police, the Congressional Budget Office, the Government Accountability Office and the Library of Congress.
Asked if Republicans plan to bring the bill back up, Scalise told The Hill on Thursday that the party will “keep working on the other bills that are outstanding — and then if we have time to, come back to the other bills.”
This story was updated at 12:57 p.m.