Military veterans in the GOP House conference are calling on their conservative colleagues to decouple their spending demands from the annual defense appropriations bill as budget negotiations drag on just two weeks ahead of the shutdown deadline.

Rep. Mike Garcia, R- Calif., hit out against his colleagues to the right, urging them not to hold the spending legislation hostage in exchange for a slew of other demands from GOP leadership.

Garcia’s plea comes as the defense appropriations bill remains stalled in the House due to resistance from hardline conservatives, delaying initial plans to pass it earlier this week and send the mustpass legislation to the Senate for negotiations.

“Here on the Hill, I think our biggest weakness is a susceptibility and vulnerability of being too easily distracted by political drama and gamesmanship that compels us to do horse-trading with a precious piece of legislation like this defense spending,” Garcia, a Navy veteran, said Friday.

“That’s the reason that we stand here today to implore all Republicans and Democrats to support this very important $826 billion critical step forward.”

Congress only has 15 days until the government is scheduled to run out of money and enter a shutdown period, sending House GOP leaders into a scramble as they attempt to get all corners of their conference on board to advance the must-pass legislation.

So far the House has passed just one of its 12 appropriations bills after GOP leaders canceled votes on the defense bill due to a lack of support among hardline conservatives.

Several of those conservatives have remained adamant they won’t vote for any spending legislation unless certain provisions are included, such as a vote on Republicans’ border security bill and slashed funding for certain “woke” policies at the Pentagon. McCarthy has been working with his right flank to iron out some sort of agreement, but nothing has been agreed upon yet.

Garcia hit out against those conservatives on Friday, urging them to drop those demands and support passage of the defense funding legislation.