Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., stated Tuesday government shutdowns “have always been a loser for Republicans politically” and that they’ve “never produced a policy change” amid ongoing division in Congress about government .
“I’m not a fan of government shutdowns,” McConnell advised reporters following the GOP convention’s weekly luncheon.
McConnell stated the higher chamber is ready to see what the House goes to do on a persevering with decision (CR), which might hold the earlier yr’s funding for federal applications briefly.
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, leaves a information convention following the weekly Republican caucus luncheon on the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022. (Samuel Corum/Bloomberg through Getty Images)
However, the anticipated procedural vote for the non permanent spending invoice, which was crafted by way of negotiations between the House Freedom Caucus and Main Street Caucus, was faraway from the schedule on Tuesday. The government will enter partial shutdown if no deal is reached by 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 30.
“We’ll see what the House does and act accordingly,” McConnell stated. “I support what the speaker is trying to accomplish because he’s trying to avoid a government shutdown, and he’s trying to help with an appropriations process so that we have something close to a normal process.”
The House Freedom Caucus and Main Street Caucus’s proposed laws proposed averting a government shutdown by way of Oct. 31 by an 8% discount in non-defense discretionary spending, alongside wit key elements of the House GOP’s border safety invoice, The Secure the Border Act, handed earlier this yr.
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Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) speaks to reporters exterior the Speakers Balcony on the U.S. Capitol Building on July 25, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
But House Republicans are divided on the difficulty and whether or not a CR ought to even be handed, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy can solely lose a handful of Republicans to move something with out Democratic votes.
Meanwhile, the Senate — which Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has used as a shining instance of bipartisanship in distinction to the House — can also be experiencing pushback from Republican leaders on passing its appropriation payments.
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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., are headed for a spending showdown later this yr.
Last week, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., rejected a transfer to advance army development and Veterans Affairs spending payments as a result of they had been mixed with funding for the departments of Agriculture, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development. He and different conservatives argued they need to be break up up and voted on individually.
Sen. Jon Cornyn, R-Texas, tried shifted the blame to Schumer, and stated on the ground final week: “He knows we can’t pass all these bills in the next 16 days.”
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“It’s a gold standard for political theater, this is drama scripted by the majority leader so he won’t get blamed for a shutdown,” he stated, calling it “a Schumer shutdown.”
If each chambers cannot move all 12 appropriation payments by Jan. 1, a 1% spending reduce might be enacted on all non-defense discretionary spending.
Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.
