McCarthy dismisses criticism that he is looking for a speaker with a bust on the year-end spending bill

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Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy insisted Wednesday that his opposition to the Democrats’ catch-all spending bill had nothing to do with bolstering conservative support for his election as the next president of bedroom.

Mr McCarthy, whose presidential bid is currently several votes short of the 218 he needs, rallied Republicans against the year-end spending deal brokered by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.

“It would have nothing to do with being a speaker. It has to do with the American public and what the future of America will be when it comes to fiscal resources,” McCarthy told reporters on Capitol Hill.

He has urged Senate Republicans to block the Democrats’ spending bill that would fund the government for the remainder of the fiscal year ending September 30. He wants to push spending decisions to the next Congress which meets on January 3 with a GOP-run Loger.

“You just had an election where we changed course, where the House is now going to be controlled by Republicans,” he said. “You have Democrats who used to control everything and didn’t do their job and who are now going to try to block us just before Christmas with a bill that funds the whole government that we have no influence over?”

Mr. McCarthy’s position is shared by most Republicans in the House but also by five members who oppose his candidacy for the presidency.

McCarthy and House Republicans are pushing the Senate to pass a short-term spending bill that expires in January when the GOP-led House has a say in spending levels .

Congress is expected to pass a week-long interim spending measure intended to avoid a partial government shutdown at midnight Friday. This is supposed to give them enough time to complete the spending bill for the full year.

Senate Republican leaders announced on Tuesday that they were close to a deal with Democrats to fund the government with a catch-all bill known on Capitol Hill as the omnibus. It includes $858 billion in defense spending, $787 billion in domestic spending and aid to Ukraine.

Mr. McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, said it was the best deal they could get.

Others say a fight against spending and a confrontation with the January shutdown is the last thing the new House Republican majority needs.

Sen. Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican on the Appropriations Committee who is retiring at the end of the year, said he doesn’t think “a new Congress should be forced” to take over the work of the last Congress. .

“And even more during a change of control. I just think it poses big problems,” he said.

Ramsey Touchberry contributed to this story.

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