Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), a major Republican holdout on a stopgap spending package, indicated he is prepared for a prolonged shutdown of the US government in order to include conservative border policy.
If Labor and Education “have to shut down for a few days as we get their appropriations in line, that’s certainly not something that is optimal,” Gaetz said on Sunday Morning Futures. To paraphrase, “But I think it’s better than continuing on the current path we are on to America’s financial ruin.”
Even though House Republicans plan to advance four appropriations measures this week, Congress is still likely to miss the month’s end budget deadline. A temporary resolution to finance the United States government for between 14 and 60 days is now being considered by Republicans.
According to Representative Jim Jordan, “everyone wants to get the 12 appropriation bills done” in theory, but “frankly, we’re not going to get it done in the next six days.”
As the Ohio Republican put it, “so there’s going to have to be some stopgap measure,” albeit Republicans would have to “win something” in adopting a so-called continuing resolution.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other Democrats have claimed on several occasions that Republicans are holding the federal government hostage with their “civil war” of factionalism in the House. Vice President Joe Biden spoke at a Congressional Black Caucus gathering on Saturday night and urged Republicans once again to “get this done.”
Conservative hardliners have expressed frustration with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy because he must balance the needs of the party’s conservatives and moderates while relying on a thin Republican majority.
Representative Tim Burchett, another Republican holdout, said he would “look strongly at” backing McCarthy’s resignation as speaker if the speaker approved a budget plan that relied on Democratic votes.
On CNN’s State of the Union, Burchett stated, “The American public needs to realize that all these fancy titles, CRs, and omnibuses to confuse the American public are not working.”
Texas Republican Tony Gonzales has hinted that he is against a continuing resolution.
In an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation, he said that the presence of a “hard cliff” would drive the two sides to work together. To paraphrase, “And that’s what I think we need; we need to have a hard line that forces everyone to get in the room and pass these bills.”
After numerous far-right legislators rejected the concept of a 31-day continuing resolution that would slash domestic spending and incorporate a conservative border bill, a major McCarthy friend, Representative Garret Graves, offered the new financing alternative on Saturday.
The few Republican holdouts in the House could derail any temporary legislation if they had the votes to do so. Republicans see the House version as a means to begin conversations at a lower expenditure level, even though it is highly doubtful that any plan enacted by the House will pass muster in the Senate, which is now controlled by the Democratic Party.
Florida Republican Matt Gaetz said he is “not pro-shutdown” but wants McCarthy to keep his word on passing “separate single-subject spending bills.”
