The Fights That Many House Republicans Really Want

The danger … is that the far right could create a partial shutdown on Jan. 19 of agencies they don’t care about, which is the kind of bloody trophy many of them would be proud to carry home and wave around.— David Firestone

David Firestone, in an article in The New York Times on November 16th, explains what to expect early next year:

Take the bill that pays for the Agriculture Department and the Food and Drug Administration, for example. The far right has been trying for weeks to insert in it a provision that would prohibit abortion pills from being distributed by mail.

A non-starter, this has the potential to stall the 2024 Farm Bill (H.R. 4368); the Farm Bill expires at the end of this year.

Another example is the bill to pay for the Justice, State and Commerce Departments. The extremists want huge spending cuts there and have demanded to slash the budget for the F.B.I., …

This isn’t going to happen, but might force Justice, State and Commerce Departments to shut down.

Firestone concludes:

These are the kinds of fights many House Republicans really want, and this week’s interim bill just kicks them down the road for a couple of months. Mr. Johnson gets a very temporary positive grade for not creating chaos before the holidays, but the bigger test is coming, and it could kick off a very contentious 2024.