The House is expected to be inactive for the next four days after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s latest proposal to break the Republican deadlock on government funding came under fire by passing a defense spending bill Thursday. It had been.
The House and Senate are scheduled to reconvene on Tuesday after the weekend and the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, giving them little time to avoid a partial shutdown that many in Washington now see as inevitable. It will be 5 days.
McCarthy (R-Calif.) expressed optimism Thursday morning that House Republicans were close to a breakthrough on a stopgap spending package to keep the government fully operational beyond Sept. 30. . A day earlier, he said he intended to maintain the policy. The House of Commons will be in session on Friday and Saturday to allow work to continue.
But after a 216-212 vote to begin deliberation on the $886 billion defense budget, the chairman had a reality check. It was the second time in three days that the attempt had been blocked, and the third defeat for Mr. McCarthy since he took over as speaker in January. Rules voting.
Andy Biggs of Arizona State, Dan Bishop of North Carolina State, Tom Cole of Oklahoma State, Eli Crane of Arizona State, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia State, Matt Rosendale of Montana State. His six Republicans worked with 210 Democrats to defeat the test vote.
Currently, Mr. McCarthy can pass legislation with only Republican support even if he loses four Republican votes.
“This is a whole new concept of people who just want to burn the whole place down. It’s not going to work,” McCarthy vented to reporters after the vote.
“This hurts. It hurts my head. This is a very difficult series of missteps by our conference,” said Rep. Steve Womack (R-Arkansas). politiko. “If you can’t do that [the defense bill]what can you do?
Rebel Republicans, led by McCarthy’s nemesis Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), want to see progress on individual spending bills before voting on the stopgap measure, known in Washington parlance as CR. .
A compromise released by House Republicans late Sunday called for cutting spending by 8% from the current level, excluding the Pentagon, Veterans Affairs and disaster relief, in exchange for keeping the government open until Oct. 31. But the rebels are unconcerned.
“We should pass the spending bill now.” Green told Fox News.. “And he wasted a whole week trying to buy it for four weeks. It’s still not enough time and we’ll be in the same situation again.”
“I hope they put the same amount of energy and effort into crafting a spending bill as they are developing this fake CR.” Add Rosendale.
“CR is like Lay’s potato chips.” Gates said. “It seems like you never stop with just one. This is like the gateway CR they offer. [House leadership] I want to pass. They want to run his 30 day CR, which leads to another CR, which then leads to an omnibus bill. That is the memory of this town for the past seven years. I’ve had enough. “
Former President Donald Trump has also stepped up his resistance. wednesday night He called on Republicans to “defund all aspects of crooked Joe Biden’s weaponized government.”
“This is also our last chance to defund political prosecutions against me and other patriots,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “They failed at the debt limit, but they must not fail now. Protect the country with the power of your wallet!”
House Democrats are pushing for a ban on Pentagon spending on critical race theory training, the removal of the Pentagon’s chief diversity officer position, and a ban on drag shows on military installations, among other key issues. is opposing the National Defense Bill over its provisions.
The Republican opposition cited provisions extending aid to Ukraine as a reason for opposing the bill, the same day that Kiev President Volodymyr Zelenskiy proposed more aid to lawmakers.
“I just voted against the rules in the defense bill because they refused to take the war money for Ukraine and put it in another bill,” Greene posted on social media. “And 55% of Americans and 71% of Republican voters agree with me that we should stop funding the war in Ukraine.”
Ahead of the vote on the defense bill, McCarthy’s team reportedly said: Focus on stopgap legislation The proposal, which would provide $1.471 trillion in funding for the entire government and include committees for spending cuts, would almost certainly not have been a start for Senate Democrats.
Meanwhile, the Senate has yet to pass any of the 12 spending bills and is at odds with the House on top-line numbers.
On Wednesday, the Senate again failed to advance the so-called “minibus” package, which consists of three spending bills to fund agriculture and military construction, transportation and housing, and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Debt ceiling negotiators agreed in May to cap spending at $1.59 trillion, but hardline Republicans have been simmering over the concession for months.
They are aiming for a high-end level close to the $1.471 trillion baseline discretionary spending level for fiscal year 2022. This was also the first Republican proposal to raise the debt ceiling.
