Freedom Caucus leader backs Senate deal to end government shutdown, with one exception

EXCLUSIVE: The leader of the House’s most conservative group is tentatively giving his blessing to the Senate’s bipartisan deal to end the government shutdown.

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., told Fox News Digital he was leaning in favor of supporting the legislation, though he added he was still reviewing its final details.

“As it currently is formatted, I would probably be a ‘yes’ vote,” Harris said.

The “one caveat,” he added, was a push by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to overturn a measure in the bill cracking down on the sale of some “intoxicating hemp provisions.”

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“If that provision is removed then … I can’t support the bill,” Harris said. “We have to close the 2018 Farm Bill loophole that allows hemp-derived products to be sold with intoxicating THC levels. And in many states, it’s even sold to children. We have to reverse that.”

The Senate broke its weeks-long government funding impasse on Sunday night. Eight Democrats joined all Republicans, except for Paul, to overcome a filibuster on an updated spending bill.

It’s possible the Senate could strike a unanimous agreement to move quickly on the legislation, but all eyes are on Paul to see if he will drag out the process in protest of the hemp provision.

Overall, however, Harris said the legislative package “looks pretty favorable” from what he’d seen so far — noting the rest of his right-wing House GOP caucus likely felt the same.

“We’re still unpacking the entire package, but with the exception of the [reversal of federal layoffs], I think that the members are pretty favorable toward … the rest of the package,” Harris said.

Terms of the deal include a new extension of fiscal year (FY) 2025 federal funding levels through Jan. 30 in order to give congressional negotiators more time to strike a longer-term deal on FY 2026 spending.

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It would also give lawmakers some headway with that mission, advancing legislation to fund the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration; the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction; and the legislative branch.

They are three of 12 individual bills that are meant to make up Congress’ annual appropriations, paired into a vehicle called a “minibus.”

In a victory for Democrats, the deal would also reverse federal layoffs conducted by the Trump administration in October, with those workers getting paid for the time they were off.

It also guarantees Senate Democrats a vote on legislation extending Obamacare subsidies that were enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic, which are set to expire at the end of this year.

Extending the enhanced subsidies for Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), was a key ask for Democrats in the weeks-long standoff.

No such guarantee was made in the House, however, so Democrats effectively folded on their key demand in order to end the shutdown — a move that infuriated progressives in Congress.

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Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has said both publicly and privately that he would not promise Democrats a vote on the enhanced Obamacare subsidies in the House in exchange for their support.

Harris told Fox News Digital that he did not believe such a vote would pass the House or Senate.

“The COVID-era extensions, I think there is no way that that passes either chamber,” he said, referring to “clean, straight-up extensions” specifically.