Congress must pass legislation in September to avoid a government shutdown regarding government spending and the House Freedom Caucus has issued a list of demands which includes 12 appropriations bills they want included in the upcoming legislation.
During the time Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s has been Speaker of the House, the House Freedom Caucus has clashed with him on numerous pieces of legislation. The Caucus desperately wants to reduce the amount of reckless government spending and has included appropriations bills in the upcoming legislation to do just that, if they want their votes. The Republicans control a very small majority in the House, and the Speaker needs the votes of the Freedom Caucus if he wants to pass anything.
The House Freedom Caucus announced they would not support any piece of legislation that does not “include the House-passed ‘Secure the Border Act of 2023’ to cease the unchecked flow of illegal migrants, combat the evils of human trafficking, and stop the flood of dangerous fentanyl into our communities.” On May 11th, the House passed the Secure the Border Act on a strict party line vote. The legislation would include more construction of a border wall and would bar any migrants who entered the country illegally from claiming asylum. The Democrats have strongly opposed this legislation and has not passed the Democrat controlled Senate.
If the Secure The Border Act actually passed through Congress, President Biden has publicly stated he would veto the legislation immediately.
The second major demand of the Freedom Caucus is to “address the unprecedented weaponization of the Justice Department and the FBI.” This demand obviously refers to the weaponization of the DOJ and FBI against political opponents such as former President Trump.
The third demand is to “end the Left’s cancerous woke policies in the Pentagon undermining our military’s core war-fighting mission.” Many Congressional Republicans disagree with the Department of Defense’s advertising for LGBTQ individuals and bending to the woke mob.
The final ultimatum from the Freedom Caucus is opposing “any blank check for Ukraine in any supplemental appropriations bill.” The Biden administration has wanted an additional $24 billion in aid to Ukraine and the caucus is unwilling to support more monies for Ukraine when American’s desperately need it here.
If the demands are not met set forth by the Freedom Caucus, then they will not vote for another continuing budget resolution, which temporarily funds the government or kicks the can down the road even more, unless some kind of agreement can be made on reckless spending.