Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) has expressed dissatisfaction with the bipartisan stopgap funding measure passed by Congress yesterday, saying he felt Republicans “did not get anything” out of it.
Donalds told “Fox News Sunday” host Shannon Bream that many of the issues at the top of the Republican agenda were not addressed in the bill. The Florida Republican also blasted House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) for calling the Republicans who voted against the measure “MAGA Republicans.”
“Look, I’m gonna be honest. We did not get anything out of this continued resolution,” Donalds said. “The border is still unsecured in our country. Why is that? That’s because Joe Biden and the Democrats got their way. The Democrat members are very happy with what they got. I think this is a terrible deal for the American people.”
“Cutting this government’s spending down must happen,” Donalds continued. “Inflation is still running rampant. That’s not MAGA Republican, that’s common sense. Having a secure border – that’s not MAGA Republican, that’s common sense.”
The stopgap measure passed the House with a vote of 335-91 – 90 Republicans, and just one Democrat voted against it. Donalds notably did not vote but blamed Republican leaders for that, saying they knew beforehand that he was a “no” and therefore didn’t hold the vote open for him as he made his way to the chamber.
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The stop-gap bill includes $16 billion for U.S. disaster relief aid but no additional funding to Ukraine – something Democrats and some Republicans had pushed for. However, it will only continue to fund the government for 45 days, at which point Congress will have to pass a permanent solution to fund the government.
Many Democrats, including Jeffries and Virginia Democratic Rep. Don Beyers, claimed the temporary funding measure was a win for their party. Beyers accused McCarthy of “folding,” while Jeffries said, “Extreme MAGA Republicans have lost.”
While the majority of Republicans voted in favor of the funding bill, some that voted against it did not hold back in their criticism, with Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz saying he would file a motion to vacate against McCarthy at some point this week. Donalds did not commit to voting to oust the speaker, but he did say that he felt McCarthy should be concerned.
“I think he is in trouble,” Donalds told Bream. “There has to be some level of strong leadership in our chamber, I’m just gonna be totally blunt. There are a lot of trust issues in our chamber right now, where people feel on both sides of our conference that everybody’s not gonna hold hands and continue to do this work together.”
For his part, McCarthy said he’s not worried about a vote of no confidence and said it’s time for Republicans to “start governing.”