The House last week failed to pass legislation to fund the government amid Republican infighting with hardliners who have promised to object to any stopgap measure. McCarthy wants to deliver a GOP opening bid to the Democratic Senate while also holding back a rebellion by far-right members of his party.

Republicans are preparing to vote Tuesday on whether to start debate on four government funding bills: Defense, State, Homeland Security and an agriculture bill.

“We are going to be governing over a pile of rubble if we’re not careful,” Burchett said. “Our financial ship is sinking. And the American public needs to realize, all these fancy titles, C.R.s and omnibus, to confuse the American public is not working. The curtain’s off. We need to do our duty. We should be back in Washington right now and dealing with it. But what are we doing? Well, they sent us home.”

In an interview with CNN, Burchett last week indirectly compared McCarthy unfavorably to another California lawmaker, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“I don’t agree with her ever, hardly on anything,” he said of the San Francisco Democrat. “But she was pretty successful.”