House Speaker Kevin McCarthy still believes that passing a stopgap spending measure that would prevent a government shutdown is possible in the House, despite conservative holdouts causing a week of setbacks for him.
Mr. McCarthy, California Republican, said he wants to advance his short-term spending measure next week to give lawmakers more time.
The House has advanced only one spending bill and has stumbled twice on a procedural vote for defense spending legislation. Congress is running out of time ahead of fiscal year’s end on Sept. 30.
No votes were scheduled for Friday, and many lawmakers have left the capital.
“I still believe if you shut down you’re in a weaker position,” Mr. McCarthy said. “You need the time to fund the government while you pass all the appropriations bills.”
Mr. McCarthy’s short-term spending resolution, which seemed like an amicable middle ground for holdouts from the House Freedom Caucus earlier this week, seemingly died Thursday after the failed defense bill vote.
Still, the speaker believed the measure, which sets overall topline spending at $1.471 trillion for the 30-day duration of the legislation, includes most of the House’s marquee Secure the Border Act and establishes a debt commission, would be key to continuing work on a package of spending bills while avoiding a partial shutdown.
However, enough House conservatives have promised to never vote for a stopgap spending measure, possibly sinking Mr. McCarthy’s ambitions.
“One [member] is a lot in this Congress,” Mr. McCarthy said. “We will continue to work with people. I just believe if you’re not funding the troops and you’re not funding the border, pretty difficult to think that you’re going to win in a shutdown. I’ve been through those a couple of times.”
If the House advances Mr. McCarthy’s plan, it’s still likely dead on arrival in the Democrat-led Senate.
Mr. McCarthy also intends to put a package of four spending measures on the floor by Tuesday, with an overall topline spending mark of $1.526 trillion, which is a target set by the top House Republican in his pitch for a stopgap spending measure.
The spending package, or minibus, would include measures to fund the Department of Homeland Security, State and Foreign Operations, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Defense. A procedural vote for the defense spending measure has already failed twice.
Mr. McCarthy might have a solution to flip lawmakers who voted against the defense bill. He said he intends to yank $300 million in Ukraine funding from the bill, which was authorized by the previously advanced National Defense Authorization Act, and put that funding on the House floor in a separate vote.
That move could shift holdouts like Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who voted against the defense measure in opposition of more money for Ukraine.
That package is headed to the House Rules Committee, where lawmakers on the panel likely will work into the weekend to get the bills ready for the House floor.
Meanwhile, some GOP lawmakers have said they will work with Democrats in the lower chamber to pass a discharge petition to force votes on a short-term spending measure. Yet Mr. McCarthy said he doesn’t need help from Democrats to advance his stopgap measure.
“I believe we have a majority here and we can work together to solve this,” the speaker said.
Source:Washington Times
