Congress
GOP rebels threaten Iran spending bill over Poland troop fight
A splinter group of moderate House Republicans is threatening to derail an $88 billion Iran war spending bill unless American troops are returned to Poland.
Led by frequent Trump critic Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), the small cadre of GOP lawmakers could scuttle the emergency spending bill, which also includes farm aid and money to counter the Ebola virus. Bacon and his allies are trying to force the White House to make good on its plan to replace 4,200 American troops abruptly pulled out of Poland last month.
Just three defections could lead to serious trouble for Speaker Mike Johnson, given the narrow Republican House majority and expected widespread Democratic opposition to the measure, and concerns from GOP fiscal hawks about writing such a huge check.
The standoff is the latest clash between Republican defense hawks and a Trump administration that has largely ignored GOP worries about pulling forces from Europe — part of a larger push by the White House to force European nations to shoulder more of their own national security burden.
“We had five brigades, and we’re three now,” Bacon said about U.S. forces in Poland, considered a key ally of the United States. “It’s unsatisfactory. … If they want my support on the supplemental, they better come up and address it,” added Bacon, who described himself as the effort’s “spokesman.”
This month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the Pentagon would conduct a six-month review of American forces in Europe, and lashed out at NATO allies who declined to throw military support behind the U.S. during the Iran war.
“I stand with Don,” said Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, (R-Penn.), adding that he wanted answers from the Pentagon on why the department is changing course on “unquestionable policy” that has lasted for generations.
Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.), also a member of the Armed Services panel, said while he would still support the supplemental, “we won’t have the votes to pass it without those two.”
The White House, Defense Department and Johnson’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The abrupt cancellation of a deployment of 4,200 Army soldiers to Poland in May caught American lawmakers, Army leaders and Polish officials by surprise. Two senior Polish defense ministry officials were immediately dispatched to Washington as Warsaw raced to figure out what had happened.
At the time, Bacon said it was “a slap in the face to the Armed Services Committee,” and panel Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) told Army Secretary Dan Driscoll that his committee was “not happy.”
In the days following the Pentagon’s announcement, President Donald Trump said he would send an additional 5,000 troops to Poland “based on the successful Election of the now President of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, who I was proud to Endorse.”
But those troops have yet to be deployed.
Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), also a member of the Armed Services Committee, said he hoped withholding votes from the supplemental would not be necessary, and that the Pentagon would soon replace the troops.
“I think it’s going to come through,” he said.
A pair of House Democrats voted to rescue the Republican legislative agenda Tuesday as GOP leaders faced an internal revolt, representing an extremely rare crossing of party lines on a procedural vote in a closely divided chamber.
Democratic Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington voted with most Republicans to set up debate on a series of GOP-led bills, including a resolution condemning socialism that party leaders want to use to hammer Democrats on the campaign trail.
The two Democrats were decisive in the 210-208 vote, where five Republicans had broken ranks over frustrations with how party leaders had handled an earlier vote on government spending.
Neither Golden nor Gluesenkamp Perez gave immediate comment on their votes. Both are members of the moderate Blue Dog Democrats, and Golden is not seeking reelection in November.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters he did not get a heads-up from the two Democrats, and Majority Whip Tom Emmer also suggested he was caught by surprise.
“I don’t count Democratic votes,” he said.
Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Rules Committee, said he believed Golden backed the measure because it provided for passage of a bill benefiting lobstermen in his home state. The bill in question delays the implementation of fishing regulations meant to protect the right whale population.
The GOP holdouts were upset over a variety of issues linked to the spending bill, including the inclusion of a delay on a ban on sales of some hemp products and the manner in which GOP leaders put the funding bill on the floor. That bill, which had White House backing, passed earlier Tuesday in a 370-48 vote.
Had the procedural vote failed, Speaker Mike Johnson would have faced immediate pressure to cut the House session short and send members home ahead of next week’s GOP midterm convention in Dallas. With the government now funded through the midterms and no other pressing deadlines to meet before November, GOP leaders could still scrap some or all of the remaining September session weeks to allow members to campaign in their districts.
The House cleared a stopgap funding patch Tuesday to keep cash flowing to federal agencies until mid-December — preventing a government shutdown before Election Day and setting up two major policy battles at year’s end.
The 370-48 vote takes care of Speaker Mike Johnson’s last must-pass bill before the midterms. But swift passage comes at a cost for House GOP leaders, who are now managing blowback from Republicans angry about the contents of the funding patch Senate leaders crafted and President Donald Trump endorsed.
The legislation would fund the government beyond the October start of the new fiscal year, keeping federal agencies running on current budgets through Dec. 11. It also allows incumbents to campaign for reelection without the threat of a government shutdown feeding into political messaging about dysfunction in Washington.
“We want to get a longer-term deal. But at a minimum, let’s ensure that we can continue to see government properly funded and functioning,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told reporters Tuesday, noting the “chaos” and “uncertainty” of last year’s record-breaking shutdown.
Besides funding the government through mid-December, the bill would temporarily block the White House from finalizing a rule to put political appointees in charge of approving federal grants.
It would also delay a ban set to kick in next month on intoxicating hemp products — to the dissatisfaction of House hard-liners, who threatened to vote Tuesday afternoon against teeing up debate on other bills this week and potentially block any significant House floor action between now and November.
Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, chair of the Freedom Caucus, was among the Republicans who voted no on the funding patch and said he would oppose moving forward with debate on other bills too. He scoffed at the last-minute pressure campaign from the White House and hemp industry leaders promising to regulate intoxicating products in lieu of proceeding with the ban lawmakers enacted last November.
“They had 10 months,” Harris said in an interview this week, knocking the Trump administration for not taking action sooner to crack down on the products currently sold in the U.S. without age restrictions or other regulations. “There are profiteers who are making money on basically the health of our children, and I object to that.”
Trump is expected to sign the funding patch, which the White House endorsed last month ahead of Senate passage — even though it blocks the Office of Management and Budget from finalizing its controversial rule to overhaul the federal grantmaking approval process.
That Senate-added language, as well as a prohibition on new funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, drove significant support from House Democrats.
“This critically stops the OMB rule from proceeding forward that many of us have been pushing against,” House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) said Tuesday, cheering other “incredibly helpful” additions to the bare-bones stopgap House Republicans initially passed earlier this summer.
Democrats also hope to regain control of the House and Senate in the November elections and increase their leverage in December negotiations on government funding for the rest of the fiscal year.
“That’s the huge intervening event,” House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole said this week about the election. “And it will impact whatever comes after it, no matter what anybody thinks. So it’s not like we’ll go back and pick up exactly where we left off.”
The Oklahoma Republican traveled to Ukraine and other European countries last month with his counterpart across the aisle, top committee Democrat Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut.
The two top appropriators are motivated to strike a year-end deal to fund federal agencies with updated budgets, Cole said, rather than clearing another short stopgap or resorting to a lengthy patch that keeps programs on autopilot through next September
“We both are pretty adamant that we need to get these bills done before the end of the calendar year,” Cole said, adding that he and DeLauro will be “working really hard once we know who the players are on the other side” of Election Day.
Everton Blair was sworn in to the House Tuesday, adding another Democrat to the closely divided chamber. Blair won a special election this month to replace the late Georgia Rep. David Scott, a former chair of the House Agriculture Committee. Another Democratic winner of a recent special election, Aisha Wahab of California, is scheduled to be sworn in tomorrow to replace former Rep. Eric Swalwell, according to a person familiar with the plan.
With the two Democrats sworn and voting, Speaker Mike Johnson will be able to lose only one Republican on party-line votes.
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