US House Republicans try long-shot strategy to avoid shutdown
US House Republicans try long-shot strategy to avoid shutdown: With time running out before a deadline of September 30, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives adopted a new tactic on Friday in a desperate attempt to avert the fourth government shutdown in a decade.
Legislation that would keep the government operating when the next fiscal year begins on October 1st has not yet been advanced by Republicans.
As an alternative, they are crafting four distinct budget proposals, the majority of which take the significant cutbacks that the party’s right-wing has been calling for.
The Senate, which is controlled by Democrats, will undoubtedly reject them since they fall far short of the spending caps that were agreed upon earlier this year with Democratic President Joe Biden.
Tuesday is when the House might vote on the legislation, according to Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The funding measures’ passage might provide Republicans some negotiating power with the Senate.
McCarthy expressed his optimism that this would provide him more room to forward a measure for temporary financing to keep the government open until October 31. Republicans on the far right have objected to that suggestion.
“I still think we are in a worse situation if you shut down. “You need time to fund the government while you pass all the appropriations bills,” he said, adding that he believed additional border immigration regulations should be the primary emphasis of the overall budget battle.
Congress would have to cut down on a number of government operations, including financial supervision and civil litigation if members could not agree on spending levels.
These four proposals, which would provide funding for the State Department, the military, homeland security, agricultural programs, and other overseas activities for the whole fiscal year, are set to be discussed by the House Rules Committee when it convenes at 1 p.m. (1700 GMT) today.
With a razor-thin 221-212 majority in the House, Republicans can afford to lose relatively few members.
A procedural vote on a military budget plan worth $886 billion was halted by the House on Thursday when five Republicans joined Democrats in opposing it.
This was the third time the Republicans had failed to move the measure forward, even though the party usually supports it broadly.
The front-runner for the Republican nominee in the 2024 presidential election, former president Donald Trump, has praised a shutdown. There were three government shutdowns in the four years while Trump was president.
The end of a shutdown is not inevitable. The Democratic leader of the Senate, Charles Schumer, has set a procedural vote for Tuesday night to move a measure providing temporary financing.
McCarthy would have to choose whether to put it to a vote in the House if it passes, knowing that it may infuriate his far-right Republicans.
That may incite an effort to remove McCarthy from his speakership, which would destabilize the House even further.
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