GOP Defections In House Funding Vote Hint At Trouble Ahead


WASHINGTON -- The House of Representatives passed a three-week stopgap funding bill on Tuesday by a vote of 271 to 158, fending off the threat of a government shutdown despite nay votes from 54 Republicans.

But the size of that opposition group served to demonstrate the growing tension between Republican leadership and the conference's more extreme wing, which threatens to derail negotiations over how the government should be funded for the remainder of the year. Both Republican and Democratic leaders are watching them closely.

Among the defectors were nine GOP freshmen, part of a group the House leadership is finding almost impossible to control, according to a top Republican aide. Part of their stated opposition to the short-term bill was that it did not include riders to defund Planned Parenthood and health care reform, two of the most controversial provisions of a longer-term continuing resolution passed by the House last month.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) acknowledged some tension within his conference over the short-term funding after Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (Ohio) and others announced that they planned to vote against the three-week bill.

"I understand some of our members want to do more, but what is it in this bill they disagree with? Nothing," Boehner told reporters after a Republican conference meeting on Tuesday morning. "I'm confident this bill will pass and we'll send it to the Senate."

But as the House and Senate attempt to move forward on a compromise for a longer-term spending bill, riders could spell disaster. Republicans currently hold 241 seats in the House to the Democrats' 192, with a majority threshold at 217 votes. That creates a tricky balance for House GOP leaders as they determine how to move forward. Go too far in one direction, and the bill could alienate Senate Democrats, who rejected the House's first attempt at a longer-term funding bill. Go too far toward the center, though, and Republican leaders could face even more defectors, and fail to pass a bill through the lower chamber.

The GOP can only lose 24 votes from within its conference and still pass a bill without support from House Democrats, many of whom have opposed deep cuts to government programs.

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