Kevin McCarthy threat to block bills from Republican senators who support omnibus SPLITS Senate GOP

The widening cracks within the Senate GOP were put on full display on Tuesday over House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy's threat to lawmakers in the upper chamber who support the bipartisan omnibus funding bill.

McCarthy pledged that any legislation from Senate Republicans who support the $1.7 trillion spending package will be 'dead on arrival' in next year's GOP-controlled House of Representatives.

The bill was unveiled in the early hours of Tuesday. House and Senate leaders have made it clear that their intention is to pass it in a matter of days - and the sooner the better, with a powerful winter storm expected to hit part of the US later this week. 

It includes priorities sought by both Republicans and Democrats, but conservatives have complained that the window between its unveiling and the vote leaves no time to properly read the more than 4,000-page document.

Many of those same conservatives in both the House and the Senate have been pushing for Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, who supports the omnibus, to punt spending negotiations to next year when Republicans hold the lower chamber.

Florida Senator Rick Scott told DailyMail.com at a Tuesday press conference that he wants his caucus to support their counterparts in the House.

But more establishment figures, like Texas Senator John Cornyn, called for 'cooler heads' to prevail and suggested bipartisan fiscal negotiations are an inevitability.  

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy has spoken out against Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell's support for a year-end spending deal

On Tuesday he ratcheted up the heat by threatening to kill legislation by Republican senators who support the $1.7 trillion spending package, when the GOP holds the House majority next year

It's put Republicans' two leaders into diametrically opposed positions before the new Congress even begins. 

McCarthy backed a letter by 13 House Republicans pledging to actively oppose legislation by GOP Senators who support the omnibus. The opposition will do little to stop the bill passing in this year's Democrat-controlled House.

He wrote on Twitter, 'when I’m Speaker, their bills will be dead on arrival in the House if this nearly $2T monstrosity is allowed to move forward over our objections and the will of the American people.'

'I think that doesn't sound like a recipe for working together in the best interest of the country,' Cornyn told reporters including DailyMail.com outside of the Senate floor on Tuesday. 'So I think there's just maybe a word spoken during the heat of passion.'

In the new Congress, he said, 'hopefully, cooler heads will prevail.'

The Texas Republican went out of his way to say he doesn't 'consider this a victory' in terms of spending priorities for his party but urged McCarthy to compromise with what he suggested is the best of a bad situation.

It has split the Senate GOP, with more establishment figures like Senator John Cornyn (left) stating 'hopefully cooler heads will prevail. Meanwhile Senator Rick Scott (right) told DailyMail.com during a press conference that he 'supports' McCarthy's pushback

'If we if we were in the majority, my hope would be we would do this much differently than the way we do it now,' Cornyn said.

'So I don't think he should conflate the product - which I think is as good as can be done under a very bad set of circumstances - and the process, which stinks.'

Retiring Ohio Senator Rob Portman told DailyMail.com of McCarthy's threat, 'I don't take it seriously.'

And McConnell told reporters at his weekly leadership press conference on Tuesday that he 'absolutely' still supports McCarthy's speakership bid.

Scott, however, called for his fellow GOP senators to back McCarthy and the House Republicans' opposition to the spending package.

'We ought to be supporting the Republicans in the House. The Republicans in the House have said they do not want this bill. They want to have the opportunity to pass a spending bill when they're in control,' the Florida Republican told DailyMail.com when asked about McCarthy's comments.

Conservative Republican senators spoke out against the omnibus bill in a Tuesday press conference

'This is a Pelosi-Schumer bill, not a McCarthy-Republican leadership bill in the Senate.'

Indiana Sen. Mike Braun said fellow Republicans who do not pass budget bills 'in a timely manner' should be 'held accountable.'

'McCarthy's said he will do that,' Braun said. 'I hope he does.'

It's not the first time McCarthy has lashed out against McConnell over the spending bill debate.

He told Fox News' Ingraham Angle earlier this month that Republicans who work with Democrats on a year-end spending deal instead of pushing it to next year are 'wrong.'

Asked if that included McConnell, McCarthy replied: 'Yes.'

'Why would you want to work on anything if we have the gavel inside Congress?' the California Republican said.