Democrats fume as House GOP plans steep spending cuts despite debt ceiling deal

House Republicans are plowing forward with plans to mark up their funding bills at lower levels than the limits agreed upon with Democrats just weeks ago, teeing up what could be a nasty spending battle — and a potential government shutdown — later this year.

Democrats are fuming after House Republicans said this week that they plan to shoot for much lower than the top-line spending targets negotiated by President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as part of their deal to raise the debt limit.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, told reporters Tuesday the latest move across the aisle “all but guarantees a shutdown.”

She said Republicans are seeking to cut tens of billions of dollars from the departments of Labor, Education, Health and Human Services, and others.

“This moves us in the direction of, you could say a [continuing resolution], but in October, we’re looking toward a shutdown,” DeLauro said.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) speaks to reporters after a closed-door House Democratic Caucus meeting on Tuesday, June 6, 2023. (Greg Nash)

Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.), head of the House Democratic Caucus, also criticized McCarthy and accused Republicans of walking “away from an agreement that they made,” while arguing the move “very well could” heighten the risk of a government shutdown in the fall.

Leaders on both sides agreed to spending caps for fiscal 2024 as part of the Fiscal Responsibility Act. Congress passed the bill earlier this month to raise the debt limit before an early June deadline to prevent a national default, but key spending cuts were necessary to win backing from Republicans.

Despite bipartisan support for the plan, the bill has been met with growing opposition from conservatives since its passage as hard-liners criticize the measure for not going far enough to curb spending.

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The measure also emerged as a key issue among the Republican rebels who held up floor action in a recent revolt against House leaders. Conservatives have shifted their attention to the annual appropriations process in a bid to secure further cuts to spending.

“We have a very slim majority in the House,” Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), who serves on the Appropriations panel, told reporters Tuesday.

“We have a conference that is all over the map on spending, and we all collectively would like to spend less, but we all have different ways we would spend less,” Womack continued. “So we’ve got to reconcile within the conference.”

Under the plan, House Appropriations Chairwoman Kay Granger (R-Texas) said the GOP-led spending panel would mark up the fiscal 2024 government funding bills at the fiscal 2022 top-line level.

The proposed limits are more in line with a separate bill — known as the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023 — Republicans passed earlier this year to raise the debt limit, along with a host of partisan spending measures calling for more than $4 trillion in cuts over the next decade.

By comparison, the Congressional Budget Office estimated last month that the debt ceiling deal could reduce projected deficits by about $1.5 trillion over the next decade.

There were immediate questions over how effective the deal’s spending limits would prove as the bill came together. Early chatter rose among some Senate Republicans around the prospect of supplemental funding for defense outside of the agreed-upon caps.

While Democrats have been quick to criticize the plan in both chambers, some GOP negotiators have been hesitant to render an opinion just yet.

“We’ll have to see what they do and how they do it, and then what we do about this compromise,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said Tuesday. “So I think we’re a long way from making final judgments here.”

Capito added that bipartisan spending talks will be tougher under whichever path, but she told The Hill she thinks the House GOP plan could “definitely” make it more difficult for the party to secure further increases for their priorities in negotiations with Democrats.

At the same time, some conservatives say they think funding should be cut even further than the fiscal 2022 levels.

“I think we should be below the ‘22 spending level in the federal agencies,” Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) told reporters on Tuesday. “And I don’t even like that ceiling.”

Senate Democrats have already signaled they plan to fight fiercely against the further proposed cuts, which Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told The Hill could make the annual task of preventing government shutdown “very difficult” for Congress in the months ahead.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) also signaled to The Hill on Tuesday that Democratic negotiators are strategizing a response.

“I think we’ll take a different approach. But we’ll know more because we’re kind of getting together informally this week to react to what we’re hearing from the House,” Baldwin said.

Emily Brooks contributed.