Government shutdown risk rises over GOP opposition in Senate

[Boats]

Government shutdown risk rises over GOP opposition in Senate
By: Jacob Bogage | The Washington Post & The Guam Daily Post 03-09-24
5 hrs ago.

[Topic CAPITOL: The Capitol Dome at sunset while the House of Representatives was to vote on its next speaker of the House on Capitol Hill Oct. 11, 2023, in Washington, D.C. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post by: Jabin Botsford]

The Senate’s planned vote to prevent a government shutdown hit a snag Friday, as a small band of hard line Republicans were blocking legislation to fund nearly 30% of the government hours before a midnight deadline.

The $459 billion spending bill passed the House on Wednesday and is widely expected to pass the Senate, as well - whenever lawmakers vote on it. But without an agreement to limit debate, the chamber can’t approve the legislation until Saturday night, under Senate rules. Funding for parts of the government will expire at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, so a brief partial shutdown would begin then. Government operations could resume once the bill is passed and signed into law by President Biden.

Because the temporary closure would happen over a weekend, the practical effects would be limited. If a shutdown were to drag on, air traffic controllers would temporarily go unpaid, potentially contributing to travel delays. Food stamp programs could begin to run low on funding. In a longer standoff, housing assistance for millions of families could fall into jeopardy.

Friday afternoon, a parade of far-right lawmakers took to the Senate floor to protest the legislation, which they said did not do enough to cut federal spending and lacked policy wins that conservatives on both sides of the Capitol demanded.

Other conservatives proposed amendments or refused to accede to requests from Senate leadership in both parties to cut off time for debate and allow a vote. With enough opposition - and more Republicans were waiting in the wings to speak on the floor - the group could push the government into a brief shutdown.

Many of the main sticking points deal with the border. Some Republicans wanted the bills to include harsh new restrictions on immigration and to beef up U.S.-Mexico border security. Another wanted an amendment to exclude undocumented immigrants from the apportionment of electoral votes and members of the House. Yet another sought to eliminate earmarks from the funding bill.

“There are some people who want votes on amendments and aren’t getting them, so they obviously aren’t agreeing to proceed,” Sen. John Thune, S.D., the GOP whip, told The Washington Post. “So the clock is going to run, people are going to talk, and that will go on for quite a while and we’ll see what happens. The only incentive right now would be to trade time for votes, and it seems the Dems just want to let the clock run.”

Once time for debate expires, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., can put the bill to a vote, where it will probably pass with broad bipartisan support.

The dynamic is an illustration of the fiscal peril that has dogged this 118th Congress. The House and Senate have passed four stopgap spending bills to dodge government shutdowns since September. Friday’s bill is a spending package that is supposed to fund parts of the government for the rest of the 2024 fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. Lawmakers are taking it up six months into the fiscal calendar.

“I would urge my colleagues to stop playing with fire here,” Sen. Susan Collins, Maine, the vice chair of the Appropriations Committee, pleaded with fellow Republicans on the Senate floor Friday. “The House, controlled by Republicans, passed these bills as a package, these six bills, with a very strong bipartisan vote. With a majority of the majority voting for them. It would be irresponsible for us not to clear these bills and do the fundamental jobs that we have of funding government. What is more important?”

Funding is set to lapse after midnight for the departments of Veterans Affairs, Transportation, Energy, Agriculture, Interior, and Housing and Urban Development, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency.

Opponents of that spending, including Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., followed each other with hour-long speeches on the Senate floor that jammed business in the upper chamber.

Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, placed a hold on the legislation because appropriators did not approve funding for a “national security imperative,” his office told Punchbowl News. A spokesperson for Sullivan did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Fellow Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R), who is closely aligned with Sullivan, called on lawmakers to approve funds for a icebreaker ship for arctic shipping that she said had important national security implications.

Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., said he would not consent to allow a vote on the bill without a prior vote on his amendment to exclude undocumented immigrants from the apportionment of electoral votes and members of the House - in violation of the Constitution.

“We talked about an offer to maybe do something on this to guarantee a vote later,” Hagerty said, “but that’s now gone away.”

Tags: Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., said he would not consent to allow a vote on the bill without a prior vote on his amendment to exclude undocumented immigrants from the apportionment of electoral votes and members of the House - in violation of the Constitution.

[Closing comment: “We talked about an offer to maybe do something on this to guarantee a vote later,” Hagerty said,
“but that’s now gone away.”]

Personal note: They wait so damn long to get things done
and yet right at the red light - they finally work it out.
Why!? So long to get these issues resolved and not one
minute before shut down!?