Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus have signaled their willingness to let the federal government shut down again if they do not get their demands on increasing security measures on the southern border.
Axios reports that the Freedom Caucus plans to oppose a stopgap funding bill unless it is amended to include more funding for border security, as well as additional measures such as cutting funding for the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ), and eliminating the teaching of far-left and “woke” policies at the Department of Defense.
“We refuse to support any such measure that continues Democrats’ bloated COVID-era spending and simultaneously fails to force the Biden Administration to follow the law and fulfill its most basic responsibilities,” the caucus said in a statement. “Any support for a ‘clean’ Continuing Resolution would be an affirmation of the current FY 2023 spending level grossly increased by the lame-duck December 2022 omnibus spending bill that we all vehemently opposed just seven months ago.”
The deadline to pass the handful of remaining appropriations bills is September 30th. As Congress is unlikely to complete all of the bills in time, congressional leadership has called for the passing of a continuing resolution to extend the deadline.
“If you think we’re going to come in and in three weeks, three partial weeks in September and get the appropriations bills done, that seems unlikely,” said Congressman Chip Roy (R-Texas), a member of the Freedom Caucus.
As such, the Freedom Caucus may try to target even the temporary measure by preventing it from reaching the floor of the House for a full vote, which would increase the chances of a government shutdown.