The chief of staff said that it was on the House Republicans to prevent a shutdown
The Biden administration’s handling of the southern border: How close are we at the border? Rep. Kevin McCarthy and Tom McConnell
Kevin McCarthy is attempting to shift the discussion away from internal party divisions and towards the Biden administration’s handling of the southern border.
But that stopgap measure is a nonstarter in the Senate, and right now it’s not even clear House Republicans can even get it across the finish line later this week.
McCarthy said that Senate Democrats have ignored the situation at the border, citing statistics saying 11,000 migrants entered the U.S. illegally each day. He points out that Democratic officials in New York and other states have expressed concern about the recent influx of migrants, and that President Biden is ignoring their calls for help.
Steve Womack said in order to keep the government open, there must be something in a short-term spending bill that gives them the ability to do so.
Congress is inching closer to a shutdown. The Senate is moving forward with a short-term bipartisan bill to fund the government through November 17 and provide aid to Ukraine and for disasters in the United States. The House Republicans rejected that plan and are moving ahead with their own approach.
McConnell said that if people voted against a short-term funding measure, they would be choosing between protecting their lives and keeping our borders open.
He said he didn’t want to offer any advice to House Republicans, but noted that border agents would be working without pay in a shutdown “so I don’t think, even those of us who are deeply concerned about the border, I don’t think that’s more likely to happen in a shutdown than with the government open.”
The head of the Senate GOP said that they were going to work on amendments to address the issues of migration and illegal drugs. He told reporters the American people “deserve a government that is open and a border that is closed.”
West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said she backs adding some immigration provisions to a stopgap bill, but added, “at this point right now 77 percent of the American people do not think we should shut the government down. And I’m in the 77 percent.”
Donalds said that Senate needs to get real after he said the bill is non-starter. You’ve seen the images at the border. It has to stop immediately. And this government should not continue to be funded if we don’t secure our border.”
McCarthy suggests that the hold Outs are siding with Biden by not agreeing to the increased border funding bill. Florida GOP Rep. Cory Mills, one of the hardliners, told reporters that is “absolutely false.”
If they want to play politics with messaging, then it’s up to them. Mills’ vote remained the same. “We do care about securing our borders. We’ve made that a top priority.”
Source: Rep. Eli Crane and Rep. Matt Rosendale reblogged on shutdown debate in bid to shift shutdown blame from GOP feuds
Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., and Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., have also said they oppose any continuing resolution, or “CR” to keep agencies funded as the House and Senate negotiate on spending bills.
A pledge for House votes to be individually on all annual spending bills was a part of the deal McCarthy made to get the votes to be elected speaker.
“We are going to have to force 12 appropriations bills because our back is up against the wall,” he said. We’re going to close if that’s what we have to do.
Many conservatives seem unmoved about the impact that any shutdown would have on federal workers or those who rely on federal assistance. McCarthy on Tuesday redirected questions about workers concerned about furloughs again to border concerns.
The report that millions of women could lose aid from the Women, Infant and children nutrition program if the government shuts down was shrugged off by Rep. Norman.
Giles over the Cliffs: Matt Gaetz vs. Rep. Matt Boehm, a Republican Senator who’s been feuding with Democrats
You hear all that. Granny’s going over the cliff. He asked about the country going to the cliff. That’s crazy. I have heard that song and dance all over again. They’re going to use that, any cut.”
The government shutdown in 2018 was also triggered because of a fight over the border. At the time, former President Trump was insisting that any spending bill include money to build a wall along the southwest border. He would not support a bill that didn’t meet the demands. After 33 days, the president relented and allowed the government to reopen without any new funding for the wall.
The congressman who represents a district that Biden won in 2020 has been in touch with the bipartisan talks. For now he’s backing the speaker’s strategy and says the biggest issue facing the country right now is immigration and the Biden strategy has failed. All I can offer my colleagues is encourage them to be smart, be strategic and understand that you can’t win with nothing, if they don’t stand together,” he said.
Hanging over the speaker as the deadline when millions of federal workers will be furloughed and stop getting paid is a threat that if he cuts a deal with Democrats one of his critics will bring up a resolution to oust him from his job.
Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz reiterated that threat again on the House floor on Tuesday, but McCarthy shrugged it off. But his move to shift the blame to the president about a funding fight he’s unable to resolve among his own members demonstrates his focus for now is on keeping his position.
Womack, an ally of McCarthy’s, admitted the chance of a leadership challenge from the critics on the far right is real, saying, “negotiating with Democrats and negotiating with even some Senate Republicans can be problematic for the speaker.”
White House Communications with the White House in the Presence of a Closer Look at the Budget Challenge: Chief of Staff Jeff Zients
The White House is getting ready to communicate with the public and with federal workers in the event that Congress fails to reach a last-second agreement to keep the government funded beyond Saturday night, President Biden’s chief of staff Jeff Zients told NPR.
But it doesn’t seem likely that Biden will be communicating face-to-face with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy about the funding impasse in the immediate future.
Zients repeatedly emphasized that funding the government was up to House Republicans. “We should not be having this conversation, that’s for sure,” he said. “This was settled months ago,” he said, recalling the bipartisan funding deal that was reached between Congress and the White House in May during the debt limit negotiations. That deal set spending limits for two-years in hopes of avoiding this exact scenario.
Speaking just after getting off a Zoom meeting with Cabinet secretaries to talk through shutdown plans – and just before Biden called to check in from Air Force One – Zients said he was concerned about the impact a shutdown would have on 1.3 million active troops and air traffic controllers, who will go without paychecks. He said that small business loans and FEMA recovery projects would stop.
“There’s nothing easy here — so we’ll be prepared, but there’s nothing one can do if the government shuts down to avoid these bad consequences,” Zients said.
Zients said he did not expect a shutdown to hurt the economy – at least in the short term. “It’s never a good time for the government to shut down. He believes that the economy is good and that the government will function if House Republicans do their job.
Biden, who is on his way back to Washington after a three-day fundraising trip in California and Arizona, has told donors in recent days that a shutdown would be “disastrous” and described McCarthy as choosing to try to keep his speakership rather than do what’s in the interests of the country.
The White House has sought to draw a contrast between Biden governing – and House Republicans who Zients described as focused on a “shutdown and other extraneous issues that really have nothing to do with making peoples’ lives better.”
Some White House chiefs of staff gave some advice on how to handle a situation like this, at a dinner party. They told him to make sure the president interacts with the people of America and to pursue a deal that’s bipartisan.
The president would communicate with the American people if there was a shutdown, according to the man who is in charge of the situation. The president should explain what’s going on to the Americans and push the congress to do the right thing.
