Allies of U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have called on Republican Party officials to abandon hard-line tactics and urged them to start working together to pass a conservative spending plan to prevent a federal government shutdown, according to Irish Examiner.
In public addresses, Republicans have been urging their right-flank colleagues in every way possible to support Mr McCarthy’s latest plan to keep the government running until the September 30 deadline for the shutdown next weekend and thereby prevent further disruptions in the House.
Republican Garrett Graves believes the holdouts are “absolutely hallucinating” if they believe they can complete the work without the stopgap measure, which many have rejected, before time runs out.He said:
An important part of this strategy is going to be ensuring that we do everything we can to avoid a government shutdown.
But one conservative spokesman, Matt Rosendale, in a sign that the deep divisions are not yet over, walked past a press conference of McCarthy allies at the Capitol. He noted that he stands by his opinion. Asked if he was worried about a potential shutdown, Mr Rosendale said:
Life is going to go on.
President Joe Biden on Saturday criticised “a small group of extreme Republicans “who were threatening a shutdown that could result in “everyone in America being forced to pay the price”. He told at Congressional Black Caucus Foundation dinner.
If the government shuts down, that means members of the US military are going to have to continue to work and not get paid. A government shutdown could impact everything from food safety to cancer research to Head Start programmes for children. Funding the government is one of the most basic responsibilities of Congress. It’s time for Republicans to start doing the job America elected them to do.
Congress virtually emptied over the weekend, the House of Representatives walked in unable to agree on a host of issues, and the White House instructed federal agencies to begin preparing for a possible shutdown. To begin preparing for next week’s vote, the House Rules Committee held a rare Saturday meeting.
Mr McCarthy is pressing ahead with his plan, but there is less and less time for Congress to act. He is encouraging his right flank to start voting on several of the dozen bills needed to fund various government departments.
Under the current strategy, the House will begin voting as early as Tuesday to pass several of the dozen bills needed to fund the government. Then, with time running short, the House would move to pass a stopgap measure that would keep the government open for about a month while work continues. Mr McCarthy said before an afternoon call with his Republican colleagues:
Well, people have been holding back, not wanting to do anything — now is not the time.
Mr McCarthy said his message to the holdouts:
You’ve got to stop that.
At issue is the intention of House conservatives to undo the agreement that Mr McCarthy and Biden were able to reach earlier this year, which governs the level of funding for the Government.
Mr McCarthy has previously promised Republican hardliners to lower spending levels. He made that promise in January during his own race for Speaker of the House. However, achieving that measure would require severe budget cuts to government services and programmes that even other Republicans are unwilling to make.
