Hardline Republican holdouts push US government closer to shutdown
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US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy speaks with reporters as the deadline to avert a partial government shutdown approaches on Capitol Hill in Washington on Sept 28.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON - The US federal government was on Friday two days from a partial shutdown, as a handful of hardline House Republicans refused to support a bipartisan stopgap spending Bill meant to give lawmakers more time to negotiate a full-year deal.
The National Park Service will close, the Securities and Exchange Commission will suspend most of its regulatory activities and hundreds of thousands of federal workers will be furloughed beginning at 12.01am ET on Sunday (12.01pm Singapore time) if Congress does not pass a spending package that can be signed into law by President Joe Biden before then.
House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy succeeded in passing three of four Bills late Thursday that would fund four federal agencies.
The Bills were written to accommodate hardline conservative demands and stand no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate, though even if they became law, they would not avert a partial shutdown because they do not fund the full government.
Republican hardliners have said they will not take up a Senate Bill to fund the government through Nov 17, which has advanced with broad bipartisan support, including that of top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell.
The shutdown would be the fourth in a decade and comes just four months after a similar standoff brought the federal government within days of defaulting on its US$31 trillion-plus (S$42 trillion) in debt. The repeated brinkmanship has raised worries on Wall Street, where Moody's has warned it could damage the nation's creditworthiness.
Mr McCarthy and Mr Biden in June agreed to a deal
The current fight focuses on a relatively small slice of the US$6.4 trillion US budget for this fiscal year. Lawmakers are not considering cuts to popular benefit programmes such as Social Security and Medicare.
Several hardliners have threatened to oust Mr McCarthy from his leadership role if he passes a spending Bill that requires any Democratic votes to pass, an outcome almost guaranteed given that any successful House Bill must also pass the Senate, controlled by Democrats 51-49.
Former President Donald Trump, Mr Biden's likely election opponent in 2024, has taken to social media to push his congressional allies towards a shutdown.
‘Frustrated’
House Republicans expressed annoyance late on Thursday with their hardline colleagues, who have stymied the process at almost every turn.
"They can't set a fire, call the fire department, turn off their water supply and then blame them for not putting out the fire," Representative Dan Crenshaw told Reuters. "That's kind of what's happening right now."
Representative Mike Garcia, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, described himself as "frustrated".
"We don't have a good position going into what would be a negotiation with the Senate," he told Reuters.
Representative Richard Neal, the ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, described the appropriations process as “the worst in the 35 years I’ve been here”.
Moderate Republicans are pushing for a vote on their own short-term spending measure, which would also most likely not pass the Senate if it includes the expected harsh border measures that Democrats do not support.
"We are in a mess," Representative Marc Molinaro, a moderate Republican, said in a statement on Wednesday, referring to the situation at the border. "In a bipartisan government, our solution must be bipartisan."
A shutdown will also delay vital economic data releases, which could trigger financial market volatility, and delay the date that retirees learn how much their Social Security payments will rise next year. Social Security payments themselves would continue. REUTERS
