With an end-of-month deadline to fund the federal government looming and the Speaker pro tem angering various factions of his caucus while trying to please others, the Republican leadership of the House pulled two key bills amid intraparty squabbling, Politico reports.
A key agriculture funding bill was suspended as the anti-choice wing of the Party attempted to insert language limiting reproductive health care into the bill. It’s a goal of the Handmaid Caucus to reduce reproductive health access by inserting provisions in key bills. The practice annoys conservatives who want the legislature to pass “clean” bills as well as a dozen or so moderate Republicans who have let Speaker pro tem Kevin McCarthy know they do not support such moves.
Later Wednesday, a $826 billion defense spending bill was suspended because McCarthy did not have the support of some conservatives members of the GOP caucus. Members of the Freedom Caucus are demanding McCarthy specify budget cuts he’ll include, both inside and outside the defense appropriation, with other members objecting to the Biden Administration supplying arms to Ukraine.