After the House Freedom Caucus’ decadelong struggle to get federal spending and debt under control, they now have seasoned appropriator Rep. Andy Harris leading the charge.

The Maryland Republican has been a member of the hardline conservative group since its inception in 2015 and is the first Freedom Caucus chairman to also wield a gavel in the House Appropriations Committee.

That’s a powerful first for the tea party-inspired caucus that has become the standard bearer of those determined to cure Washington’s addiction to spending and debt.

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“I follow in the footsteps of some real giants, and, you know, hopefully, we can keep the House Freedom Caucus as relevant to the future of American conservatives as it has been for the past 10 years,” Mr. Harris, 67, said in an interview with The Washington Times.

On Sept. 17, the group’s members chose Mr. Harris to replace Rep. Bob Good of Virginia as chairman. He will serve in that post until at least through December, when Congress will be thrust into another spending fight that will be heavily influenced by the outcome of the Nov. 5 elections.

The House Freedom Caucus has been in the middle of every recent funding battle, leveraging the House GOP’s thin majority to try to force Republican leaders to adhere to conservative principles and challenge the Democrats’ spending plans.

The new chairman has a foot in both worlds: He helped craft the bills that the Freedom Caucus often opposed. Now, he hoped his experience on the panel would better position and inform the caucus’ tactics in the upcoming battles over spending and debt.

“My philosophy is that we have to actually get things accomplished,” he said. “We’re in the majority. I think when you’re in the majority, you have the potential to accomplish things, and we need to be part of that process, recognizing that we’re not going to get 100% of what we asked for, but we’re going to pull the conference toward a more conservative position.”

Mr. Harris has a long record as a staunch conservative but has, on occasion, broken from the Freedom Caucus.

As the lone Republican member of the congressional delegation from deep-blue Maryland, he joined his Democratic peers to call for federal funding to reconstruct the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed into the Patapsco River in Baltimore in March when a container ship struck it.

Mr. Harris believed that around $2 billion would be enough to cover the rebuild, but he wanted strings attached to the money.

Namely, Maryland would not be on the hook for any of the funds, the federal money would be offset, the bridge would not be renamed, and there would be no requirement for a project labor agreement that could force state officials to go out of state for major contractors to work on the bridge.

“I do believe we will get this bridge fully funded by the federal government,” Mr. Harris said. “But there are these little things that we have to deal with first.”

Congress’ next deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown is Dec. 20. Lawmakers will likely pass another stopgap funding bill or a colossal omnibus spending bill to fund the government for the rest of fiscal 2025.

Mr. Harris, however, is not shy about pressing for a partial government shutdown if necessary.

“A shutdown situation, in my mind, is entirely different one month before an election and 23 months before an election,” he said. “And the bottom line is, it’ll be 23 months before an election in December.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, promised not to resort to an omnibus or any other bundled spending packages in December.

Mr. Harris said he was encouraged by Mr. Johnson’s pledge and the speaker’s attempt, though it failed, to pass a spending bill that included the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act that would have required proof of citizenship to register to vote.

The decision to attach the SAVE Act to the spending bill was heavily influenced by the House Freedom Caucus.

“I give a lot of credit to the speaker for bringing that to the floor, even though a lot of people told him, ’You’re not going to have the votes to pass it,’” Mr. Harris said. “That’s okay. You know, the Republicans have to stand up for something, even if we don’t win on every issue, we have to fight on every issue. And I think what he showed is we’re willing to fight on some of these issues, like the SAVE Act.”

As for his future as chair of the caucus, Mr. Harris remained coy.

His term ends with the current Congress in January, and he is primed to again lead the hard-liners after running unopposed to finish Mr. Good’s term. But his plans for the future could depend heavily on what happens on Nov. 5.

“We’re at a critical juncture in the Freedom Caucus, and how we go forward and who best to lead it going forward will be different depending upon the outcome of the election,” he said.