Risk of a government shutdown this fall is rising after a powerful bloc of House conservatives vowed to oppose any stopgap spending measure that does not roll back Pentagon policies they consider “woke.”
In a statement Monday, the House Freedom Caucus said it would not support a “clean” continuing resolution, or CR, that would keep the government open beyond when current government funding expires after Sept. 30 by extending existing funding levels with no change.
Instead of a CR that essentially puts the government on autopilot, the Freedom Caucus is demanding several policy riders, including one to “end the left's cancerous woke policies in the Pentagon undermining our military's core warfighting mission.”
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“We refuse to support any such measure that continues Democrats' bloated COVID-era spending and simultaneously fails to force the Biden administration to follow the law and fulfill its most basic responsibilities,” the statement said.
Getting a deal to fund the government by Sept. 30 was already expected to be difficult given the quick deadline after lawmakers return to Washington, D.C., from their summer break and the partisan divide between the House and Senate. But the Freedom Caucus, which has already shown its ability to grind the House to a stop several times this year, taking an official, albeit not unexpected, stance…
