Conservative activists urge GOP to hold firm on spending bills

Conservative advocacy groups are sounding the alarm that a quick surrender by House Republicans on 2019 spending bills in the coming weeks could decimate the morale of grass-roots activists the GOP will need for the closing stretch of the midterm campaign season.

Lawmakers are intent on avoiding a government shutdown next month, but conservatives say a more orderly spending process won’t mean anything if it leads to bloated spending bills that can win bipartisan support in the Senate, rather than leaner bills that advance GOP priorities.

“Why are we always playing damn defense? Put [Senate Minority Leader Charles E.] Schumer on defense. Put [House Minority Leader Nancy] Pelosi on defense with these pieces of legislation,” said Adam Brandon, president of FreedomWorks.

Groups such as his are working House Republicans while they’re home for a five-week summer vacation.

Senators, meanwhile, are in Washington, having cut short their own summer break to make headway on spending bills including those for the Defense, Labor, Health and Education departments.

But unlike the House, where Republicans can muscle through conservative-friendly legislation with sheer numbers, appropriators in the more evenly divided Senate have worked to sidestep controversial policy “riders” that restrict funding on hot-button issues such as abortion, gun control and environmental regulations.

Grass-roots conservative leaders say Republicans can’t claim victory if they retreat on their policies and accept higher levels of spending.

“It’s hard for activists to swallow those overall spending levels if there are not conservative policy victories that accompany them,” said Tim Chapman, executive director of Heritage Action for America. “We’re trying to work with folks on the House side to say it is in your best interest as conservatives to be putting appropriations bills across the floor that do contain conservative policy victories.”

Activists are likely to win support from the House Freedom Caucus, a group of about three dozen conservative Republicans who effectively hold veto power over legislation that doesn’t have broad support from Democrats.

Rep. Jim Jordan, the Ohio Republican who plans a run for to replace retiring House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, says he wants to block any funding from going to Planned Parenthood, while boosting money for President Trump’s promised border wall.

Mr. Trump has suggested he may veto the bills and prompt a government shutdown if he doesn’t get a major boost in wall funding.

He originally requested $1.6 billion for fiscal 2019, but later said he wanted more. The House has included $5 billion for border improvements in its 2019 homeland security funding bill, though the Senate has stuck with Mr. Trump’s original $1.6 billion request.

The homeland security bill is not likely to be completed before the Oct. 1 start of the new fiscal year, forcing lawmakers to provide stopgap funding for the department or risk a shutdown of some operations.

Conservatives say the House needs to hold firm in border wall demands if they want voters to be energized for November.

“That was an issue that made a big difference in a lot of these states, and I think the president’s trying to keep that issue alive and remind people that they ran on this issue, he largely won because of this issue, and people expect something to get done,” Mr. Brandon said.

Six in 10 Republican voters would back Mr. Trump on a shutdown showdown over the wall, though seven in 10 voters overall would not, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.

Conservatives are already steeling for Republican leaders to cave, saying past battles have given them little reason for optimism.

“We’re really fearful of that it certainly doesn’t help energize our base as we go into a midterm election,” Mr. Chapman said. “I just think there’s always been this forgone conclusion that we’re just going to have to eat whatever the Senate sends to us, and I don’t think that should necessarily be true.”