'Woke' Pentagon Spending at Center of Upcoming Government Shutdown Fight

Risk of a government shutdown this fall is rising after a powerful bloc of House conservatives vowed to oppose any stopgap spending measure that does not roll back Pentagon policies they consider "woke."

In a statement Monday, the House Freedom Caucus said it would not support a "clean" continuing resolution, or CR, that would keep the government open beyond when current government funding expires after Sept. 30 by extending existing funding levels with no change.

Instead of a CR that essentially puts the government on autopilot, the Freedom Caucus is demanding several policy riders, including one to "end the left's cancerous woke policies in the Pentagon undermining our military's core warfighting mission."

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"We refuse to support any such measure that continues Democrats' bloated COVID-era spending and simultaneously fails to force the Biden administration to follow the law and fulfill its most basic responsibilities," the statement said.

Getting a deal to fund the government by Sept. 30 was already expected to be difficult given the quick deadline after lawmakers return to Washington, D.C., from their summer break and the partisan divide between the House and Senate. But the Freedom Caucus, which has already shown its ability to grind the House to a stop several times this year, taking an official, albeit not unexpected, stance against a clean CR raises the stakes.

While defense officials often express annoyance at CRs since the stopgap measures do not allow the military to start new programs, the Pentagon has gotten used to operating under them as nearly every fiscal year for the last two decades has started with one.

A CR is also much more preferable to the Pentagon than the alternative -- a government shutdown. In a shutdown, active-duty troops have to continue working without getting paid unless separate legislation is passed to keep paychecks flowing; most civilian Pentagon employees face being furloughed; and permanent change of station moves are limited, among a shutdown's disruptive effects.

In recent weeks, congressional leaders have indicated they will pursue a short-term funding patch to keep the government open past Sept. 30, acknowledging the reality that the GOP-controlled House and Democratic-controlled Senate are still far from agreeing on a more comprehensive funding plan. The Senate is on recess until Sept. 5, and the House is gone until Sept. 12, leaving just three weeks when both chambers are in session before current funding runs out.

"I spoke with [House] Speaker [Kevin] McCarthy [R-Calif.] at the end of July, and I thought it was a good thing that he recognized that we need a CR in September," Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters last week. "A CR until early December provides time for consideration of these bipartisan bills."

While it would not be unusual for a CR to include policy riders, the specific demands of the Freedom Caucus are nonstarters for Senate Democrats and the White House. In addition to the elimination of "woke" Pentagon policies, the group is demanding that a CR include hard-line immigration policies and cuts to the Justice Department and FBI.

"If the House decides to go in a partisan direction, it will lead to a Republican-caused shutdown," Schumer said in a statement to NBC News and The Washington Post on Monday.

Monday's Freedom Caucus statement does not define what Pentagon policies they are targeting, but conservatives use the "woke" label to deride any policy aimed at making the military more welcoming to minorities, women and LGBTQ+ people. In posts Monday on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, some Republicans singled out Pentagon abortion policies, diversity programs and preparations for climate change.

Because of Republicans' slim majority in the House, a small number of motivated lawmakers can have an outsized influence, as members of the Freedom Caucus and other far-right lawmakers demonstrated with January's prolonged speakership fight and a standoff in June that paralyzed the House for days to rebuke McCarthy for reaching a debt-limit deal with the White House.

Concern that conservatives could hold up the annual defense policy bill in a similar manner led to the House's version of the bill including GOP-backed provisions to reverse the Pentagon policy covering travel and leave for service members getting abortions, ban gender-affirming health care for transgender troops, and end diversity programs at the Pentagon.

The Freedom Caucus on Monday also vowed to oppose "any blank check" for Ukraine. The White House has requested Congress approve $13 billion more for weapons and other military support for Ukraine with the expectation that the funding could be considered alongside a CR. While most lawmakers in both parties continue to support American aid to Ukraine, approving more funding was already expected to be an uphill climb after 70 House Republicans -- or about one-third of the conference -- voted last month to cut off U.S. funding to the country.

-- Rebecca Kheel can be reached at rebecca.kheel@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @reporterkheel.

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