{"id":18501,"date":"2023-10-01T04:40:43","date_gmt":"2023-10-01T09:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=18501"},"modified":"2023-10-01T04:40:46","modified_gmt":"2023-10-01T09:40:46","slug":"republicans-reject-own-funding-bill-us-government-shutdown-imminent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=18501","title":{"rendered":"Republicans reject own funding bill, US government shutdown imminent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Hardline Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday rejected a bill proposed by their leader to temporarily fund the government, making it all but certain that federal agencies will partially shut down<\/u><\/a> beginning on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a 232-198 vote, the House defeated a measure that would extend government funding by 30 days and avert a shutdown. That bill would have slashed spending and restricted immigration, Republican priorities that had little chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The defeat left Republicans – who control the chamber by 221-212 – without a clear strategy to avert a shutdown<\/u><\/a> that would close national parks, disrupt pay for up to 4 million federal workers and hobble everything from financial oversight to scientific research if funding is not extended past 12:01 a.m. ET (0401 GMT) on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the vote, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said the chamber might still pass a funding extension without the conservative policies that had alienated Democrats. But he declined to say what would happen next. The chamber is expected to hold more votes on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s only a failure if you quit,” he told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was not clear whether the Senate would act in time, either. The chamber was due on Saturday afternoon to take up a bipartisan bill that would fund the government through Nov. 17, but procedural hurdles could delay a final vote until Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Friday that a government shutdown would “undermine” U.S. economic progress<\/u><\/a> by idling programs for small businesses and children and could delay major infrastructure improvements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shutdown would be the fourth in a decade and just four months after a similar standoff brought the federal government within days of defaulting on its $31 trillion debt. The repeated brinkmanship has raised worries on Wall Street, where the Moody’s ratings agency has warned it could damage U.S. creditworthiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden warned that a shutdown could take a heavy toll on the armed forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We can’t be playing politics while our troops stand in the breach. It’s an absolute dereliction of duty,” Biden, a Democrat, said at a retirement ceremony for Mark Milley, a senior general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCarthy had hoped the Republican spending bill’s border provisions would have won over holdouts who so far have defied efforts to avert a shutdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, 21 hardline House Republicans sided with Democrats to defeat the measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There are members who don’t care whether the government stays open or it shuts down,” said Republican Representative Kat Cammack told reporters. “The ones that I believe are OK with a shutdown have never been through a shutdown.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holdouts say Congress should focus on writing detailed spending bills that would cover the entire fiscal year, rather than temporary extensions, even if doing so prompts a shutdown. The House has passed four full-year bills so far, though they stand no chance of winning Senate approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What does work is rolling up our sleeves and getting onto these single subject bills and moving them,” Representative Matt Gaetz said on a podcast after voting against the stopgap bill on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other Republicans said they would probably have to work with Democrats to pass a stopgap bill that could win approval in the Senate and from Biden. “Some people are missing the obvious,” said Republican Representative Don Bacon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCarthy said he was considering that approach but would not accept additional aid to Ukraine that Biden has requested and lawmakers in the Senate are including in their stopgap bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former President Donald Trump, Biden’s likely election opponent in 2024, criticized Senate Republicans for working with Democrats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaetz and a handful of other hardliners have threatened to oust<\/u><\/a> McCarthy from his leadership role if he relies on Democratic votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’re in the middle of a Republican civil war that has been going on for months, and now threatens a catastrophic government shutdown,” top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCarthy and Biden in June agreed to a deal that would have set agency spending at $1.59 trillion in fiscal 2024, but hardliners like Gaetz say that figure should be $120 billion lower. Lawmakers are not considering cuts to popular benefit programs such as Social Security and Medicare that make up a larger portion of the government’s $6.4 trillion budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reuters<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Hardline Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday rejected a bill proposed by their leader to temporarily fund the government, making it all but certain that federal agencies will partially shut down beginning on Sunday. In a 232-198 vote, the House defeated a measure that would extend government funding by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":18503,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1274,1268,22698,22779,22914],"class_list":["post-18501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-bill","tag-government","tag-government-shutdown","tag-republican-party","tag-temporary-funding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18501"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18504,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18501\/revisions\/18504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}