Rep. Tim Burchett says House should have started earlier this morning
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., said the House is wasting time not trying to figure out a spending deal sooner.
“Here we are,” he told reporters in the Capitol this morning after 10 a.m. “We should have been at this seven o’clock in the morning talking about it.”
National parks would close if government shuts down, official says
The National Park Service plans to close its parks and furlough park rangers if the government shuts down as expected Sunday, a move that would spoil vacation plans for tens of thousands of people and put some gateway towns in an economic chokehold as long as the impasse in Congress lasts.
The park service plans to restrict access to parks as much as possible, shuttering visitor centers, locking gates and bolting bathrooms, a senior Interior Department official said.
Areas where restrictions are difficult, such as the National Mall or some trailheads, would remain open to the public, but trash collection, emergency response and other services wouldn’t be guaranteed.
Read the full story here.
Today’s Senate schedule, so far
The Senate will come back into session at noon, and the next procedural vote related to the bipartisan Senate stopgap continuing resolution will happen at about 1 p.m. (unless something changes between now and then).
If the procedural vote passes it starts up-to-30 hours of debate, which would push us past the midnight deadline barring a time agreement.
Today’s house schedule, so far
House Republicans will gather in person for a conference meeting in the Capitol at 9:30 this morning, according to two sources with direct knowledge.
This comes after the House failed to pass a GOP stop-gap measure with border security provisions attached yesterday, with 21 hardline conservatives issuing a political blow to Speaker McCarthy and making the prospects of a government shutdown tonight all but certain.
At 10:00 a.m., the House officially comes into session and the floor opens. There is no vote currently planned in the House.
U.S. barrels toward shutdown as House Republicans remain stuck
With a deadline hours away, congressional leaders on Saturday are scrambling to secure a last-minute funding deal to prevent a government shutdown that would inflict economic pain on millions of American families.
Unless Congress acts, the government will close at 12:01 a.m. Sunday — halting paychecks for the nation’s 4 million servicemembers and other federal workers, shuttering federal parks and monuments, and disrupting food and education programs for low-income children.
Many dejected lawmakers said a shutdown is all but inevitable at this point after conservative hard-liners in the House on Friday tanked a 30-day stopgap measure, known as a continuing resolution or CR.
Read the full story here.
Who on Capitol Hill gets paid during a shutdown, and who doesn’t
Members of Congress are required by law to continue getting paid during a government shutdown, even as their staff and millions of federal employees would go without pay if the funding deadline lapses.
Since that can have political implications, some House lawmakers have submitted letters to the chamber’s Chief Administrative Officer to request that their pay be withheld if the shutdown takes place as expected. Even if their pay is withheld, lawmakers would still get paid once the government reopens.
At least a handful of lawmakers, including GOP Reps. Mike Lawler of New York and Zach Nunn of Iowa, have requested a pause in their paycheck if there’s a shutdown, but it’s not clear exactly how many have taken that step.
When asked how many letters have been received, a spokesperson for CAO declined to comment.
Capitol Hill staffers, on the other hand, will not get paid during a shutdown.
House staff are normally paid on the last day of each month, meaning they would be receiving their last paycheck ahead of a shutdown today.
Senate staff are paid twice a month, on the 5th and 20th. If the government shuts down, they will go without pay until the government reopens.