A weary House GOP failed to bring up a Pentagon spending bill—a historically non-controversial measure—for debate for the second time this week on Thursday.
House members packed it up for the week after once again failing to reach an agreement on any spending measures ahead of the looming government shutdown deadline, eliciting a gibe from President Joe Biden.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has until September 30 to broker an agreement between his caucus members, with five GOP hard-liners consistently voting against the majority of their party over frustrations with McCarthy’s leadership. Just hours before the chamber headed into weekend break, the five holdouts again blocked a key Pentagon funding bill from advancing to debate, calling for additional spending cuts to the bill.
“It’s frustrating in the sense that I don’t understand how anyone votes against bringing the idea up and having the debate,” McCarthy told reporters as he left the House floor, reported NBC News.
“This is a whole new concept of individuals that just want to burn the whole place down,” the speaker added.
