Several Republican senators have formed a new caucus in hopes of pushing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and the Senate itself, further to the right.

What You Need To Know

  • Several Republican senators have formed a new caucus in hopes of pushing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and the Senate itself, further to the right

  • The group consists of Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, Utah Sen. Mike Lee, Indiana Sen. Mike Braun, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Florida Sen. Rick Scott

  • Braun told reporters his colleagues have begun affectionately calling themselves “The Breakfast Club,” a reference to the iconic 1985 film of the same name, due to their early morning talks on policy

  • The group's first show of force was when they threatened to block a must-pass military funding bill unless the administration ended its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for service members

The group consists of Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, Utah Sen. Mike Lee, Indiana Sen. Mike Braun, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who spearheaded the party's Senate election efforts in November's midterms.

Braun told reporters his colleagues have begun affectionately calling themselves “The Breakfast Club,” a reference to the iconic 1985 film of the same name, due to their early morning talks on policy. 

"We've formed that group, and we're developing our own principles, and we're trying to develop strategies and things we can accomplish," said Johnson, one of just 10 GOP senators who supported Scott's bid to replace McConnell as Senate Republican Leader. "It's pretty much that simple."

McConnell was able to fend off that challenge, cruising to reelection in a 37-10 vote, but that hasn’t slowed the group’s efforts to influence policy within the Senate GOP. 

The group's first show of force was when they threatened to block a must-pass military funding bill unless the administration ended its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for service members. Their approach appeared to work, as a provision ending the vaccine requirement was added to the legislation. The bill passed the House earlier Thursday in a 350-80 vote.

Johnson says the group is still pushing for its second demand: Reinstating service members who were discharged for not getting the COVID vaccine. The Wisconsin Republican says that service members who were kicked out of the military for not being vaccinated against COVID-19 should be reinstated with full back pay.

But he acknowledged the victory of the provision being added to the spending bill: "I'll take what win we can get."

Five out of the six senators also called a press conference earlier this week to warn Republicans against supporting an omnibus government spending bill that would avert a government shutdown next week. While McConnell said he and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy have reached an agreement and will support the legislation's passage before the mid-December deadline, Sen. Johnson wants his colleagues to hold out on a long term deal until Republicans regain control of the House next year.  

"This omnibus is grotesque," Sen. Johnson told Spectrum News. "We need to start fixing that process now that we have the majority of Republicans in the House. They can pass a budget, they can pass individual appropriation bills then we ought to do everything we can here in the Senate to start bringing those House-passed single appropriation bills up here for debate and passage."