Senate poised to act on compromise to avert government shutdown
Senators representing the Republican and Democratic parties have agreed to advance a compromise measure that would prevent the government from running out of funds on Saturday by continuing operations at current levels for the next month and a half, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday.
Mr Schumer said the senate would take the first procedural vote on moving the legislation, known as a continuing resolution, through the upper chamber later on Tuesday evening.
The New York Democrat described the agreement as one that would “continue to fund the government at present levels while maintaining our commitment to Ukraine’s security and humanitarian needs while also ensuring those impacted by disasters across the country begin to get the resources they need”.
The Senate’s impending votes on the compromise bill come as the Republican-controlled House, led by Speaker Kevin McCarthy, continues to struggle with basic tasks of legislation despite the fast-approaching end of the US government’s fiscal year.
If the House and Senate do not pass any measure to fund the government and send it to President Joe Biden’s desk by midnight on 30 October, millions of federal workers will be furloughed and vital government programmes will be forced to cease operations, while many military and law enforcement personnel will be made work without pay.
A small number of House Republicans have refused to vote for any bill to fund the government that does not extract draconian cuts in a broad swath of federal programmes, zero out all funding for Ukraine’s defence against Russia, and specifically defund investigations and prosecutions of former president Donald Trump.
But funding legislation that matches the far-right extremist wish list has zero chance of becoming law because it would not be able to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate or gain the assent of Mr Biden.
Mr McCarthy, who has largely assented to the demands of his conference’s right-most flank since becoming Speaker in January, has scoffed that the idea that the Senate would be able to agree on legislation before his chamber is able to act.
While speaking to reporters Tuesday morning, he refused to entertain what he described as “hypotheticals” when asked repeatedly whether the House would consider any legislation passed by the Senate.
He continued to refuse such questions when he held another impromptu news conference later in the day.
“I heard all this time, they’re going to pass appropriations bills all month,” Mr. McCarthy said. “Remember, you all wrote about it? They were the good chamber. So when they pass something, come back and ask.”
A decision by the California Republican to allow his chamber to take up any Senate-passed bill — or any move to allow a bill supported by the House’s Democratic Caucus to pass through the chamber — would likely cause some of the extremists to whom Mr McCarthy owes his current post to formally call for his removal.
