Government shutdown: House voting as Republicans scramble for deal

Matt Gaetz told reporters on Saturday that “our plan is to continue to build support for our single subject spending bills”.

“And this 45-day CR is not does not liberate us from our nation’s financial challenges – [we] remain $33tn in debt. We’re facing $2.2tn annual deficits. You know, right now, literally our government is trying to figure out how much more we want to deficit spend so that we could send money to Ukraine. And that is crazy to me,” he added.

“You know, we did see at our conference meeting last night a calendar for the first time where the leadership laid out how they wanted to take up single-subject spending bills, but they’re only doing that with a political gun to their head. They’re only doing that because we’re forcing them and, you know, if we can use our leverage to get the House to take these things up … I think that’s probably good,” the Floridian said.

Come midnight Saturday with no deal in place, federal workers will face furloughs, more than 2 million active duty and reserve military troops will work without pay and programs and services that Americans rely on from coast to coast will begin to face shutdown disruptions.

The Senate will be in for a rare Saturday session to advance its own bipartisan package that is supported by Democrats and Republicans and would fund the government for the short-term, through Nov. 17.

But even if the Senate can rush to wrap up its work this weekend to pass the bill, which also includes money for Ukraine aid and U.S. disaster assistance, it won’t prevent an almost certain shutdown amid the chaos in the House. On Friday, a massive hard-right revolt left Speaker Kevin McCarthy‘s latest plan to collapse.

“Congress has only one option to avoid a shutdown — bipartisanship,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Feinstein, a centrist Democrat who had represented California since 1992, had medical struggles in recent months that already had prompted questions about whether she’d resign and who might replace her.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to pick a replacement soon. An election to pick the state’s next senator serving a full six-year term is scheduled for next year.

Here’s a look at what Feinstein’s death means for the Senate at a critical time on Capitol Hill:

Florida Republican Matt Gaetz told reporters on Saturday that it was “disappointing” that Speaker Kevin McCarthy is ready to work with Democrats to fund the government.

“We really developed some momentum passing a bill to fund our troops, our Defense Appropriations Act. We passed our veterans funding bill, we passed our homeland security funding bill,” he said. “We passed our state and foreign obstacle funding bill and we did this with single-subject spending bills.”

“The fact that we’re reverting to the normal muscle memory of Washington to pass a continuing resolution is certainly disappointing,” he added.

He said Mr McCarthy’s speakership is “on the line. I would say it’s on some tenuous ground”.