Updated 4:45 p.m. | House Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers said Wednesday that President Barack Obama — not known for reaching out to Republicans personally — called him Tuesday to ask that authority to take action against ISIS be added to the GOP’s proposed continuing resolution.  

The Kentucky Republican said the president called at 5 p.m., asking that he include in the CR the authority to arm Syrian rebels who are fighting the jihadi insurgents in control of parts of that country and Iraq.  

Rogers expressed frustration that the president waited so long to make that request.  

“Obviously we’re having briefings on what the president requested last night,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “However, they have known about this problem for over a year. They knew that we were getting ready to do a CR, and just as I was getting ready to drop it in the hopper the president calls and asks if we would consider it.”  

Rogers said he would prefer the language related to ISIS, or ISIL as the group is also known, not be placed in the CR, which GOP leaders originally intended to be a streamlined spending bill that would, with minimal debate, clear both chambers and defuse the government shutdown looming at the end of the month.  

Though consideration of the CR has now been postponed to allow lawmakers to reach a deal on the matter, Rogers maintained that the spending bill’s passage was never contingent upon inclusion of ISIS language .  

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