House Freedom Caucus shockingly defies GOP leadership, kills farm bill with the Democrats


A closely-watched farm bill was rejected by the House 213-198 on Friday, as conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus joined Democrats in opposition as a protest of GOP leadership refusing to bring an immigration bill to a vote. "The vast majority of our members believe that we should have a vote on immigration before we have a vote on the farm bill," said Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), the leader of the caucus, despite the fact that House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has promised to bring the conservative immigration legislation to the floor in June, The Hill reports.
The Freedom Caucus' defiance was a blow to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and McCarthy, who seemed to believe they had enough support to pass the bill when they went into the vote, says CBS News' Ed O'Keefe. The opposition on the floor reportedly broke out in cheers "when the results were announced."
The five-year, $867 billion bill was opposed by the block of Democrats because of a Republican provision that would impose work requirements for the 40 million users of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
-
August 23 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Saturday's political cartoons include deficit dimness, steamroller-in-chief, and more
-
5 museum-grade cartoons about Trump's Smithsonian purge
Cartoons Artists take on institutional rebranding, exhibit interpretation, and more
-
Settling the West Bank: a death knell for a Palestine state?
In the Spotlight The reality on the ground is that the annexation of the West Bank is all but a done deal
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fine
Speed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in Intel
Speed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to China
Speed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with Disney
Speed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B deal
Speed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance merger
Speed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profits
Speed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new high
Speed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year