House Freedom Caucus makes new demands that threaten government shutdown: report

The hard-right House Freedom Caucus is making new demands that will make a government shutdown much harder to avoid, according to a report Monday.

The Republican group announced it would oppose a stopgap funding bill unless House leadership agrees to its demands for more funding for border enforcement, cuts to the Department of Justice and FBI and the termination of so-called "woke" policies at the Department of Defense, reported Axios.

"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 GOP lawmakers said in a statement. "Any support for a 'clean' Continuing Resolution would be an affirmation of the current [fiscal year] 2023 spending level grossly increased by the lame-duck December 2022 omnibus spending bill that we all vehemently opposed just seven months ago."

POLL Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

Congress has a Sept. 30 deadline for completing appropriations bills, although House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has floated a stopgap measure to give lawmakers more time. But some Republicans have discussed blocking that continuing resolution if the bill doesn't meet their demands.

"If you think we're going to come in and in three weeks, three partial weeks in September, and get the appropriations bills done — that seems unlikely," said Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) told Axios.