An urgent effort by Speaker Kevin McCarthy to avoid a government shutdown failed Thursday when he bowed to resistance from his most conservative members and abandoned an effort to bring forward a Pentagon spending measure this week.
The capitulation to the far right underscored the difficulties McCarthy faces as he tries to find a way to advance a series of spending bills and avoid a shutdown in two weeks, while at the same time trying to hold on to his post amid right-wing threats to be dropped off. it. It also illustrated his lack of influence on the far right, as the opposition held on despite his repeated urging for lawmakers to speed up passage of funding measures to put the Republican-led House of Representatives in a better negotiating position with the Democratic-controlled Senate , which on Thursday encountered its first hurdle in advancing bipartisan spending legislation.
At a private meeting of Republicans in the House of Representatives on Thursday morning, Mr. McCarthy was adamant that Republicans should avoid a shutdown, according to those present. They said he vented to members over the impasse and issued a blasphemous challenge to those who threatened to remove him as chairman if he did not meet their demands on spending or try to reach a spending deal with Democrats.
He also said he would keep the House in session next week until a breakthrough on spending was achieved.
“I’m going to run the conference to the best of my ability,” Mr. McCarthy said, according to attendees, as he won a standing ovation after challenging those seeking to unseat him to try, using an expletive .
As they left town after a fruitless week, other Republicans in the House of Representatives joined Mr. McCarthy in expressing their deep frustration and growing concern that the spending crisis had put them on a path toward a government shutdown at the end of the month, for which they would probably bear the burden. debt.
“I call it Washington’s version of Burning Man,” said Representative Steve Womack, Republican of Arkansas and a senior member of the Appropriations Committee. “We are stuck in the mud. But it was predictable. That is the difference.”
The latest setback for House Republicans came from an $826 billion Pentagon spending measure that has historically drawn broad support from both parties eager to show support for the military. But Democrats oppose all Republican bills because they deviate from a debt ceiling deal McCarthy struck with President Biden earlier this year and also contain many conservative policy provisions they oppose.
At the same time, members of a bloc of far-right Republicans have said they will not support bringing any of the 11 remaining spending bills to the floor until they receive assurances that any measures will not exceed the prepandemic level of about $1.47 trillion.
In an effort to break the impasse, Republican leaders gave far-right lawmakers multiple opportunities to offer changes to the legislation, but that was not enough to entice them to support the party in a procedural vote needed to bring the bill to the floor. to take. The leaders then gave up for the time being, leaving their entire credit agenda up in the air and increasing the risks of a shutdown.
“We’re going to have a shutdown,” said Rep. Ralph Norman, Republican of South Carolina and a member of the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus, which is pushing for sharper cuts. “It’s just a matter of how long.”
Rep. Dan Bishop, Republican of North Carolina and another of those standing in the way of the spending legislation, said he had no intention of relenting until he received guarantees on spending.
“I’m not going to hang around or vote to just continue the massive increases in debt levels and just move on,” said Mr. Bishop, who blamed the situation on Republican leaders. “It’s just incomprehensible to me that there is such a lack of leadership that they can’t put forward a plan.”
Darkening the landscape even further, the Senate on Thursday encountered its first obstacle in what had been a smooth and bipartisan process, when Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, held up an agreement on consideration of three spending bills coming out of the Appropriations Committee. with the unanimous support of both parties. A handful of Republicans in the Senate object to the joint consideration of the three bills.
Senator Susan Collins of Maine, the senior Republican on the Appropriations panel, said Mr. Johnson was preventing members of his own party from introducing amendments to the legislation and that the end result at year’s end could be a pile-up of spending bills that cost much legislators find objectionable. .
“We will end up with an omnibus, a government shutdown or a years-long continuing resolution that would fund programs that should no longer be funded and that would prevent new programs from starting up,” said Ms. Collins, who said the leaders consulted with the Senate parliamentarian on the way forward.
With multiple challenges to the annual spending bills, lawmakers urged leaders to focus on a stopgap bill to keep the government operational beyond September 30.
“It’s just a terrible outcome for everyone. It shows the dysfunction in Washington,” Mr. Womack said of a possible shutdown, adding that it “validates America’s lack of confidence in its elected officials to fulfill its most fundamental duty, which is to fund the decaying government .”
With the House of Representatives paralyzed, at least for now, rank-and-file members said they were engaged in preliminary talks to craft a stopgap spending bill that could draw support from both the far right and more mainstream Republicans. The goal was to put something together that could pass the House of Representatives and put pressure on the Senate to agree. But the type of measure they discussed, including budget cuts and new immigration restrictions, would be a non-starter in the Senate.
The collapse of the House of Representatives and the Senate drew criticism from leading Democrats in both chambers as they laid the groundwork to shift responsibility to Republicans.
“Our Republican leaders must reject this MAGA Republicanism for the good of the country and the good of their party,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and majority leader.
