House Republicans are set to face two major \u2014 and politically polarizing \u2014 issues when they return to Washington next week.
September was always poised to be a busy stretch on Capitol Hill, with lawmakers staring down an end-of-month deadline to fund the government or risk a shutdown. But Speaker Kevin McCarthy\u2019s (R-Calif.) announcement the House could open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden as soon as September has kicked that hectic outlook into overdrive.
Those two efforts are slated to come to a head next week, when McCarthy and House Republicans will have 11 legislative days to keep the government\u2019s lights on and come to some sort of consensus on a potential impeachment inquiry \u2014 a heavy lift for a conference that has little time and large disagreements on both matters.
In public, GOP lawmakers are brushing off any concerns about taking on both ventures in September. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), a 22-year veteran in the House, said different lawmakers focus on different undertakings, allowing all of them to move forward at the same time.
\u201cWe do a lot of things simultaneously, that\u2019s why we break into committees,\u201d Issa told reporters in the Capitol last week. \u201cThere needs to be, and already is, a number of inquiries related to Hunter Biden. There also is a myriad of legislation, including much of mine. And at the same time, you know, we all come to the floor to fund the government.\u201d
\u201cWe can do all of them,\u201d he continued.
And Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said while 11 legislative days may be little time to complete government funding, Republicans have a duty to be a check on the White House.
\u201cCertainly, you know, there\u2019s challenges to everything that we\u2019re trying to do from the appropriations spending standpoint; we are, you know, struggling with 11 or so legislative days that remain between now and Sept. 30,\u201d Good told The Hill in an interview.
\u201cHowever, we need to do the right thing by the American people, and I think we need to pass fiscally responsible appropriations bills, and we also need to hold the president accountable for this alleged wrongdoing as it relates to the Biden family in addition to his intentional, purposeful, blatant facilitation of the border invasion,\u201d he added.
Logistically speaking, however, addressing both matters over the few legislative days in September will be tough, requiring political maneuvering by McCarthy with conservatives pushing for steeper spending cuts and moderates wary of opening an impeachment inquiry.
At least one GOP lawmaker sees the two matters as contingent on one another, upping the pressure on McCarthy as he walks a tightrope to appease all ends of his conference while also keeping the government running.
\u201cI\u2019ve already decided: I will not vote to fund the government unless we have passed an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden,\u201d Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)\u00a0announced\u2002at a town hall\u00a0last week.
The White House, for its part, slammed Greene\u2019s assessment.
\u201cThe House Republicans responsible for keeping the government open already made a promise to the American public about government funding, and it would be a shame for them to break their word and fail the country because they caved to the hardcore fringe of their party in prioritizing a baseless impeachment stunt over high stakes needs Americans care about deeply \u2014\u00a0like fighting fentanyl trafficking, protecting our national security, and funding FEMA,\u201d deputy press secretary Andrew Bates\u00a0wrote in a\u2002statement.
McCarthy said he\u00a0wants to pass a short-term spending bill\u00a0to kick the government funding deadline later in the year, a move that would buy lawmakers more time to hash out their differences on the full slate of appropriations bills. The House has\u00a0passed only one of its 12 funding measures, while the Senate has approved none.
Conservatives, however, are making noise about a potential continuing resolution: The House Freedom Caucus,\u00a0made of roughly three dozen members,\u00a0put out an official position\u00a0last month that said it will not support a stopgap funding bill unless it includes language to address the situation at the southern border, \u201cweaponization\u201d of the Department of Justice and \u201cwoke policies\u201d at the Pentagon.
With the slim GOP majority in the House, united opposition from the conservative group could tank a stopgap bill unless some Democrats cross the aisle and support the measure, a possibility that will depend on the contents of the legislation. And, across the Capitol, any Freedom Caucus demands would likely be dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
\u201cIt\u2019s a pretty big mess,\u201d Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said of the government funding negotiations during a press gaggle in Kentucky last week.
McCarthy last month said the House\u00a0could launch such\u00a0an impeachment inquiry as soon as September, but some moderates are not ready to take the step. Constitutionally speaking, the House does not need to stage a vote to open an impeachment inquiry \u2014\u00a0which would require majority support \u2014 though the chamber did in 2019 when House Democrats launched such an investigation into then-President Trump.
Despite\u00a0reporting from CNN\u00a0indicating McCarthy was considering skipping a vote, the Speaker told Breitbart News on Friday the chamber would hold a vote should the conference decide to launch an impeachment inquiry.
\u201cTo open an impeachment inquiry is a serious matter, and House Republicans would not take it lightly or use it for political purposes. The American people deserve to be heard on this matter through their elected representatives,\u201d McCarthy told the outlet. \u201cThat\u2019s why, if we move forward with an impeachment inquiry, it would occur through a vote on the floor of the People\u2019s House and not through a declaration by one person.\u201d
But asked last month whether he has the votes to launch an inquiry, McCarthy told Fox News \u201cwhen we go back, we\u2019ll discuss this.\u201d
McCarthy has sought to tie the two matters together in what could be perceived as an attempt to allay conservative concerns on spending by connecting the process to the conference\u2019s investigations. The Speaker argued a government shutdown would stymie congressional investigations \u2014 including the probe into the Biden family business dealings, which could become an impeachment inquiry in the coming weeks.
\u201cI would actually like to have a short-term CR, only to make our arguments stronger, because, Maria, if we shut down, all the government shuts it down, investigation and everything else. It hurts the American public,\u201d McCarthy said during an appearance on Fox\u2019s \u201cSunday Morning Futures\u201d last month with host Maria Bartiromo, referring to a continuing resolution.
In that same interview, McCarthy called an impeachment inquiry \u201ca natural step forward.\u201d
But some conservatives holding the line on slashing government spending are scoffing at that evaluation, vowing they will not be drawn away from their spending cuts mission at the sight of an impeachment inquiry.
\u201cWe are not going to be distracted by a shiny object saying \u2018if you don\u2019t get this continuing resolution passed we won\u2019t be able to pursue the impeachment inquiry,\u2019 that\u2019s nonsense,\u201d Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) said on Fox Business last month. \u201cLet us go back to Washington, do our work, and leadership needs to do their work and that is to press to make sure the appropriations bills are brought forth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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