As Senate pushes for bipartisanship to prevent government shutdown, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy It’s back to square one — asking his fellow far-right Republicans to do what they said they would never do: approve their own temporary House measure to keep the government open.
A Republican spokesman laid out his strategy behind closed doors Wednesday, urging his unruly republican majority work together. He held a test vote on a far-right bill on Friday, a day before Saturday’s closing deadline.It would cut federal spending by 8% at many agencies and strengthen border security But it was rejected by Democrats and his own right-wing Republicans.
“I want to fix this problem,” McCarthy later told reporters at the Capitol.
But when asked how he would pass a partisan Republican spending plan that even his own right doesn’t want, McCarthy had few answers.He flatly refused Senate Bipartisan BillThe plan would fund the government through Nov. 17, adding $6 billion for Ukraine and $6 billion for U.S. disaster relief while negotiations continue. Instead, he insisted, as usual, that he would never give up trying.
Congress is at a crossroads, days ahead of a devastating federal shutdown that will halt employee paychecks. millions of federal workers, Leaving 2 million active-duty and reservist troops to work without pay, closing many federal agencies, and leaving Americans large and small who rely on the government in dire straits.
President Joe Biden told a meeting of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in California that he doesn’t think a federal government shutdown is inevitable.
“I don’t think anything is inevitable politically,” he said.
But later at a fundraiser in San Francisco, Biden said of McCarthy: “I think the speaker is making a choice between his speakership and the interests of the United States.”
as Senate moves forward with bipartisanshipMcCarthy asked Biden to meet to discuss border security measures. But without support from the House majority, the speaker has little leverage over the White House.After McCarthy left the White House, the White House rejected his offer to negotiate The debt deal he reached with Biden This became law earlier this year.
On the other side of the Capitol, Senate Majority Leader Schumer warned that right-wing extremists “seem to be obsessed with shutting down the government.”
In a rare moment of agreement with Democratic leaders, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell urged House colleagues to consider the Senate’s stopgap measure, known as a Continuing Resolution (CR), and scrap the shutdown strategy.
McConnell said he also wants to take action on “Democrats’ reckless spending” and beef up border security. But he said “these important discussions cannot progress” if government functions are “ultimately hijacked”.
When McConnell mentioned that a vote against the bill would mean a vote against pay for Border Patrol agents and other personnel, it sparked a response from Biden on social media.
“You know, I agree with Mitch. I don’t understand why House Republicans want to defund the Border Patrol,” Biden wrote.
The Senate is expected to spend the rest of the week trying to pass the bill overcoming opposition from Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul and others on the right. Like their colleagues in the House, conservative senators want to halt aid to Ukraine and push for deeper spending cuts, with all action in Congress meeting last-minute deadlines.
If funding is not available by Sunday, October 1, the start of the new fiscal year, the federal government will begin a shutdown.
Goldman Sachs’ New Economic Assessment estimates the federal shutdown will shave 0.2 percentage points off fourth-quarter GDP growth every week, according to a report released Wednesday.
With no other choice, McCarthy revived his first attempt earlier this month to attach a border security package to an interim government appropriations bill. But he still faces resistance from a minority of the far-right, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who have said they will not vote for any CR, denying the majority passage.
Now that it’s too late to push for border security rules, McCarthy is trying to salvage the strategy. He sought to place blame on Biden and Democrats for not engaging in the immigration debate over the record flow of migrants at the southern border with Mexico.
Facing resistance within his own ranks, McCarthy is trying to cajole his far-right members, who refuse to vote for any stopgap spending bill — even with border provisions. “I don’t understand how anyone would stand with President Biden on keeping the border open instead of keeping the government open,” he told reporters.
The boycotters are determined to force the House to debate and pass all 12 separate appropriations bills for all government agencies. It’s been an arduous process that lasts weeks, and there’s no guarantee the bill will pass even days before the shutdown.
“If that means we shut down, we shut down, that’s what we’re going to do,” Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., said as he exited the morning Republican meeting. The House votes on all 12 bills.
Four of the bills — providing funding for defense, homeland security, agriculture and state and overseas operations — were intensely debated in the House on Wednesday.
An amendment to provide $300 million to Ukraine has the support of 104 Republicans, more support than ever as resistance to war funding grows, but it — and another similar amendment case – failed overwhelmingly. A proposal by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to cut the defense secretary’s salary to $1 was approved without objection.
But late at night, faced with the prospect that the defense bill would fail without any Ukraine aid intact, Republicans called an emergency rules meeting and eliminated the $300 million — a move the committee’s top Democrat called “a shocking move.” Sad” because the House has already decided the issue.
Republicans have defended the action, saying the Ukraine funding was routine and separate from Biden’s larger funding request and will now be voted on separately and will likely pass with overwhelming support.
Lawmakers are preparing to work into the weekend, but one leading Republican, Arkansas Rep. Steve Womack, said he believes Congress is heading toward a government shutdown.
“Someone is going to have to back down or break down, or there’s going to be some negotiation,” he said.
But the far right has threatened to oust McCarthy if he joins the Democratic Party, and Womack was not among the boycotters, explaining that the move could be “problematic for the speaker.”
While the White House says it’s up to McCarthy and House Republicans to “fix” the problems they created, Biden’s main rival in the 2024 election, Donald Trump, is urging the right to push for deep spending cuts. Former President Trump said if Republicans don’t get what they want, they should “shut it down.”
Svlook
