House Republican Study Committee (RSC) Chairman Jim Banks (R-IN) has pushed his 158-member caucus to oppose the stop-gap government funding to halt President Joe Biden’s agenda.
A senior Republican aide told Breitbart News that Banks has continued to push RSC members to oppose the continuing resolution (CR), which would fund the government through February.
Banks’ RSC represents roughly three-quarters of the House Republican Conference and could push many of his members to oppose the legislation.
Banks released a statement Monday urging Republicans to oppose any funding bill that fails to address President Joe Biden’s crisis of crises, including soaring inflation, the supply chain crisis, and the government debt.
The Hoosier conservative explained:
The border crisis, the inflation crisis, the supply chain crisis and the government debt crisis—each of the crises facing our nation today can be traced back to specific policies pursued by Democrats. We can’t give Biden a green light to continue on this destructive path.
Banks’ statement has shown that a vast swathe of the House Republican Conference wants to fight the Biden agenda.
The House Freedom Caucus has launched an effort to oppose the CR, using the prospect of a government shutdown to defund Biden’s vaccine mandate.
The House Freedom Caucus issued a statement Wednesday calling on McConnell to “deny timely passage of the CR unless it prohibits —in all respects — for the vaccine mandates.”
Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Roger Marshall (R-KS), and Ron Johnson (R-WI) have led the movement in Congress’ upper chamber to defund the vaccine mandate in the Senate.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) left the option open Thursday to potentially vote on an amendment to defund the vaccine mandate, saying he has concerns about forcing private citizens to take the vaccine.
“I’ve been very supportive of a mandate for federal government, for military … I’ve been less enthused about it in the private sector,” Manchin explained.
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.