5 Republican factions to watch in the government funding fight

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Republican leadership encountered resistance from all corners of the GOP conference to their government funding bill last week.

The measure was intended to be the opening salvo in the budget showdown with Democrats, but Johnson was forced to cancel a planned vote on it Wednesday when it became clear it didn’t have the Republican votes to pass. Complicating the matter, the opposition came from varying, and sometimes contradictory groups.

Here are the GOP factions to watch as Congress’ funding fight heats up.

Hard-liners

Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) decision to attach a six-month stopgap funding plan, also known as a continuing resolution (CR), to the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act embraces a strategy pushed by hard-line conservatives and former President Trump.

One of the biggest goals for conservatives in the funding fight is for both chambers to strike a funding deal that would kick the Sept. 30 shutdown deadline into March 2025, and some saw the SAVE Act as leverage in eventual negotiations with the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Hard-line conservatives see the effort as a way to avoid being jammed with a sprawling, end-of-year omnibus package that combines all 12 annual funding bills. They also say the move would allow the next president more influence in shaping federal funding for the remainder of 2025, as many remain confident of Trump’s odds of taking back the White House in November. 

While plans for a vote on the bill were scrapped last week, conservatives are hopeful that the plan will garner more support in the coming days, as leadership members have said they will be working through the weekend to build consensus.

“I hope we get support on it. If not, then we’re back to the drawing board,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a member of the House Freedom Caucus, told The Hill last week. 

“What I don’t want to do is open up the checkbook to the Senate in December. I just don’t.”

Defense hawks

Defense hawks emerged as a key source of opposition to the bill over their concern that freezing funding at current levels for six months will harm the military.

“If it goes past Dec. 31, I’m not voting for it,” House Armed Services Committee Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) told The Hill last week, telling other reporters that a six-month stopgap would be “terrible for defense.”

Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), head of the Appropriations subcommittee that crafts the annual bill funding the Defense Department, also told reporters last week that, while he plans to support the Speaker “in this endeavor,” he is concerned.

“It’s the largest enterprise in the world,” Calvert said. “You can’t run that under that period of time. So, hopefully we can get this work out a lot sooner.”

Under the GOP-backed stopgap proposal, funding for federal programs would be largely in line with the levels set by Congress when they last hashed out spending for fiscal 2024. But Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned in a recent letter that such a proposal could result in a “litany of difficulties” for the military — a sentiment defense hawks such as Calvert have said they don’t disagree with.

Fiscal hawks

The stopgap bill has also gotten a chilly reception from fiscal hawks, some of whom are wholly opposed to the very idea of a CR and say Congress should instead be focusing on passing 12 annual funding bills.

Some have also cited the national debt, which has climbed to more than $35 trillion, in their opposition to the stopgap measure.

While Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) backs the SAVE Act, he said in a statement last week that he would vote against the CR if it came to the floor, while pointing to the gross national debt and interest costs. 

“The fact is that the total gross national debt has surged by $2.45 trillion in just the past year; that’s $6.71 billion per day, $4.66 million per minute, and $77,631 per second. Interest on the national debt alone now exceeds $3 billion per day,” Mills said. 

“This level of reckless spending is absolutely unsustainable for our nation. We cannot continue printing money that fuels inflation and destroys the middle class. This is fiscal irresponsibility at its worst.”

Moderates

Moderate Republicans have concerns about the strategy — and about flirting with a government shutdown just weeks before Election Day.

The CR-plus-SAVE Act bill is certain to be dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

The moderates also expressed concerns about what a potential plan B would look like if Johnson’s initial proposal didn’t pan out. 

The deliberations come as Democrats have grown more bullish in recent weeks of their chances of winning back the House, as Vice President Harris has gained more popularity as the party’s presidential nominee. 

Leadership

GOP leadership is facing pressure from every corner of the Republican conference — as well as beyond. 

Trump dialed up the pressure on Republicans as he called on the party to stick with a plan to attach the SAVE Act to the stopgap, even as many in the conference acknowledge the bill likely won’t become law given opposition from Senate Democrats and the White House. 

“If Republicans in the House, and Senate, don’t get absolute assurances on Election Security, THEY SHOULD, IN NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM, GO FORWARD WITH A CONTINUING RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET,” Trump wrote in a social media post last week as the Republicans’ stopgap pitch continued to weather the storm of opposition.

At the same time, others in the conference are pushing for a “clean” stopgap bill that kicks the deadline to December, an idea favored by some Democrats, as members in both parties are calling for Congress to finish its funding work before the end of the year. 

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) also said he thinks lawmakers should instead focus on getting their funding work finished “and try and do it as expeditiously as possible.”

“I personally think it’s not a good thing to give a new president — and we’re going to have a new president — an immediate fiscal crisis,” Cole said. “But again, that’s probably going to be up to the winner of the election, to be honest. If they want it, then Congress is always happy to pass the ball.”