With the clock ticking, the possibility of a partial government shutdown starting October 1 looms larger as the parties involved appear to be drifting apart rather than finding common ground.
As Congress resumed its work on Tuesday, House Republican leaders initiated measures to rally enough support from their far-right faction to pass a budget measure with only GOP votes. These measures included floating the idea of even deeper spending cuts beyond the VA and DoD, compared to an earlier proposal to fund agencies until November 1.
The previous version of the proposal faced resistance from a handful of holdouts in the Freedom Caucus, who also insisted on various social policy provisions. They sought to have the House vote on regular appropriations bills but blocked an attempt by Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other GOP leaders to bring one of those bills, covering DoD, to the floor last week.
In an effort to meet some of these demands, House leaders have scheduled votes this week on several regular spending bills and have maintained their stance of passing spending bills with only GOP votes. However, it remains uncertain whether these bills will garner enough support to pass.
Even if they do, they would not address the immediate issue at hand—the expiration of spending authority as fiscal year 2023 comes to a close at midnight on Saturday. Neither the short-term bill nor the original appropriations bills crafted by House Republicans have any chance of passing in the Senate or winning the approval of the White House. Moreover, further cuts to those bills in order to appease the House’s faction would only strengthen the opposition.
Meanwhile, the Senate has begun to develop a more customary measure that primarily maintains agency funding at fiscal year 2023 levels until later in the year. However, this measure is not likely to pass in the House with only Republican votes.
One potential avenue to pass such a measure on a bipartisan basis in the House is through a legislative maneuver called a discharge petition, which circumvents the typical process for calling bills to a vote. However, according to House rules, this can only happen next week, after a shutdown is already underway. If such a bill were to pass, it could prompt a movement by those on the far-right to attempt to remove McCarthy, further exacerbating the gridlock.
In order to avoid a shutdown and find a resolution, it is imperative that the parties find common ground, bridge their differences, and work towards a mutually beneficial outcome.
