The House of Representatives has rejected a Republican-authored attempt at a short-term spending bill that would have kept the federal government from shutting down, making it much more likely that federal employees will be furloughed or forced to work without pay and many government programmes will be shuttered when the fiscal year ends at midnight on 30 September.
The bill would have provided a 31-day extension to government funding while enacting massive cuts in domestic programmes and new immigration restrictions that were opposed by Democrats.
While it earned support from most of Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s GOP conference, enough members from the rightward-most flank of the party defected and joined with Democrats to doom the measure by a margin of 198-232.
The failure to pass what was meant to be a party-line piece of legislation, albeit one with zero chance of gaining the approval of the Democratic-controlled Senate, is a major setback to Mr McCarthy’s efforts to avoid blame for letting the federal government run out of money Saturday night.
The California Republican has thus far refused to allow the chamber to vote on a compromise measure that would keep the government open until mid-November and allow lawmakers more time to work on spending bills for Fiscal Year 2024 because such a bill, known as a continuing resolution, would require votes from the chamber’s Democrats to pass.
A small group of extremist Republicans has vowed to oust Mr McCarthy if he allows a short-term spending bill to become law, particularly if he allows one that would gain bipartisan support to reach the House floor.
Instaed, they have insisted that Mr McCarthy prioritise passage of each of the 12 individual spending bills the House is supposed to complete before 30 September each year, three of which were successfully passed earlier this week. But none of those bills have any chance of passing the Senate or being signed into law by President Joe Biden.
One of the Republicans who joined with Democrats to defeat the McCarthy-endorsed measure, Rep Matt Gaetz of Florida, told The Independent that the bill’s failure shows that the “House has proven two things”.
“We have the ability to pass single subject spending bills … and the House has also proven that it cannot pass a continuing resolution that reverts back to the old ways of Washington, he very ways that have led that have led this country to sit atop a $33 trillion debt with $2 trillion annual deficit,” he said.
He added: “My sole focus is on getting our single subject spending bills passed. The speaker’s continuing resolution went down in flames, as I’ve told you all week it would. The House of Representatives can pass single subject spending bills, we will not pass a continuing resolution on terms that continue America’s decline”.
Mr Gaetz also said he was “calling on the Senate to immediately proceed” to the spending bills passed by the House earlier this week, even though senators from both parties have indicated that they would not support the House-passed measures.
The impasse between Mr McCarthy and the small group of House Republicans has paralysed the lower chamber and drawn ire from both the White House and the Senate’s two party leaders, both of whom have urged passage of a stopgap measure so the two chambers can work on full-year funding bills.
Biden Administration officials have slammed Mr McCarthy for reneging on a deal reached several months ago during a previous impasse over the government’s statutory debt ceiling.
While Mr McCarthy has attempted to cast blame on Mr Biden and demanded that the president re-negotiate their prior agreement so it passes muster with the small number of House right-wingers who have threatened his speakership, the White House has thus far demurred while insisting that the Republican leader honour his word.
In an interview with National Public Radio on Friday, White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients said there is “no need” for any meeting between the president and the speaker.
“The meeting that has to take place is in the House of Representatives — where House Republicans come together and fund the government,” he said.
Mr Zients added that he does not believe a shutdown will hurt the economy so long as any lapse in appropriations is brought to a swift end.
“We believe the economy is strong, and as long as House Republicans do their job, the economy will be fine and the government will function,” he said.