Few Republicans are happy with the newly unveiled $1.2 trillion spending package that will likely become law this week, and some believe they only have themselves to blame.
Rep. Max Miller, Ohio Republican, said Republicans need to take “a hard look in the mirror.”
“I’m not trying to dunk on our own party here, but this is our fault,” Mr. Miller said. “We need to accept responsibility for this Congress and what is taking place, we are in the majority and we are in leadership, and we did this to ourselves.”
Since winning the House last year, the GOP has vowed to not rely on massive spending packages to fund the government, instead preferring to pass appropriations bills one-by-one. But that goal withered over time, and has led to a six-month delay in funding the government and four brushes with a partial shutdown.
The massive, more than 1,000-page spending bill dropped early Thursday morning, with less than a day and a half before a large chunk of government funding expires. While many Republicans have grumbled about the lack of time to review the bill, most want to put an end to the long-delayed spending fight.
A vote on the bill is set for Friday and will likely pass in the lower chamber with support from both sides of the aisle.
Infighting has plagued the GOP throughout their time in the majority, causing spending legislation and other bills to be pulled from consideration or shut down on the House floor.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, has been criticized by his right-flank for moving forward with the massive bill, especially with little time for lawmakers to read the bill.
Rep. Chip Roy, Texas Republican, said Mr. Johnson and the rest of GOP leadership lacked backbone in their decision to green-light the bill.
“Last year, we were changing it,” Mr. Roy said. “I’d say credit to [former speaker] Kevin McCarthy, we were moving the needle in the right direction. And unfortunately here we are back to the same old, same old 24 hours to review a massive bill.”
But some lawmakers believe that Mr. McCarthy’s ousting was the catalyst for the dysfunctional spending fight, and eventual massive spending bill. Rep. French Hill, Arkansas Republican, did not like the time crunch associated with the bill, but believed that Mr. Johnson’s hand was forced by the nature of how he got the gavel.
“He became speaker during a very tough situation,” Mr. Hill said. “And the origin of these problems are a small group of members that chose to throw [former Speaker] Kevin McCarthy out of the speakership creating this cascading of challenges that were behind our work.”
The House was beginning to make some headway in passing the dozen spending bills needed to fund the government in September until Mr. McCarthy was ousted from his position by eight Republicans and all Democrats.
That led to a near month-long stagnation in passing spending bills that continued until earlier this year as Mr. Johnson tried to quell rebellion after rebellion within the GOP.
“I think that’s a silly extrapolation,” said Rep. Bob Good of Virginia, one of the eight Republicans who booted Mr. McCarthy.
He argued that the spending process was barely working with the former speaker at the helm. At the time of his ousting, Mr. McCarthy passed four spending bills, three of which were the result of pressure from a possible government shutdown last September, Mr. Good said.
“Do I think that means we would have somehow, if we’d kept the previous speaker, we would have suddenly passed a bunch of spending bills?” Mr. Good said. “I think that’s probably an illogical conclusion.”