NYT reporter: Republicans have ‘no incentive to budge’ ahead of looming government shutdown

Congress has until the end of this week to fund the federal government or agree on a continuing resolution to prevent a government shutdown starting Oct. 1.

To create funding for the federal government, appropriations committees in both chambers are required to pass a dozen spending bills covering different federal agencies. The bills then must pass both the full House and Senate. Once that’s been completed, the bills land on the president’s desk to be signed into law. If Congress runs out of time to finish this process, lawmakers can pass a short-term funding extension, called a continuing resolution, to give themselves more time to figure out a full-year deal.

If neither of these happen, the government shuts down.

More on the pending government shutdown: White House preparing for government shutdown as House Republicans lack a viable endgame for funding

Some Republicans in Congress believe that a continuing resolution would be just a band-aid and not address what they call “out-of-control” spending. But William LaPlante, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment for the Pentagon said a shutdown would be “horrible” and “extremely disruptive.”

Kevin McCarthy, the Speaker of the House, previously rejected the Senate’s bipartisan bill — which would fund the government through Nov. 17 and add $6 billion for Ukraine and $6 billion for U.S. disaster relief — while his own right-wing constituents have failed to agree on a partisan bill for government funding.

“It doesn’t seem like the 20 or so hardline members of this caucus are going to step in and support him to actually pass this with Republican votes,” New York Times investigative reporter David Fahrenthold told Dave Ross on Seattle’s Morning News. “It doesn’t seem like any of them are going to budge. They have no incentive to budge. So McCarthy’s stuck between either passing this with Democratic support, which would alienate the Republicans and maybe get him kicked out of his job, or letting the government shut down.”

The House has only passed one of the 12 funding bills so far. The Senate has passed none. McCarthy set up a test vote Friday, according to The Associated Press, one day before Saturday’s shutdown deadline, on a far-right bill. It would slash federal spending by 8% from many agencies and toughen border security, but has already been rejected by President Joe Biden, by Democrats and by some Republicans in the Legislature.

“So Democrats are willing to join a bipartisan vote to pass these [bills]?” Dave Ross asked Fahrenthold.

“This is to pass everything, and I think if the Democrats were going support it, they want something that didn’t last a week or a month, but would last the rest of the fiscal year,” Fahrenthold replied.

More on the pending government shutdown: Not again. Federal workers who’ve weathered past government shutdowns brace for yet another ordeal

On Wednesday afternoon, Sen. Patty Murray, (D-WA) defended the Senate’s continuing resolution to pass a bipartisan measure that was “crafted to pass both chambers.”

“Let us be clear: This is a bipartisan bill that we wrote to make sure it could pass the Senate and pass the House — as long as it is brought up for a vote,” Murray told reporters at a Senate Democrats’ press conference. “And we wrote it so that we could begin to address the urgent issues facing our country and avoid a reckless government shutdown while we work to pass our 12 bipartisan appropriations bills here in the Senate.”

According to NBC News, Murray added if any “extremists in the House” want to “force a shutdown,” it will be more costly than “simply keeping the government open” and “working Americans will pay the price.”

But Fahrenthold believes if McCarthy works with the Democrats to get these 12 funding bills passed, it would be “almost inevitable” that it would cost him his job.

“That is called a motion to vacate,” Fahrenthold explained. “But McCarthy is held by the fact that there’s really not anybody who has a lot of success who could succeed. Steve Scalise as No. 2 seems like the most obvious choice, but he’s battling a cancer diagnosis and is not in any shape to take over. And nobody else is that good. Maybe Elise Marie Stefanik, a sort of very, very pro-Trump person, is No. 3. Maybe.”

More from Dave Ross: Planes are noisy, so are babies; what’s the big deal?

Amidst a pending government shutdown, House Republicans are preparing to hold their first hearing for an impeachment inquiry into Biden this week. GOP investigators have been looking to see if the president was involved with his son’s overseas business deals and acted illegally while serving as Vice President. While spearheaded by Reps. James Comer (R-Ky.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), McCarthy’s call for an impeachment inquiry may alienate the Democratic side of Congress who could “bail him out” over passing the funding bills, according to Fahrenthold.

The White House rejected McCarthy’s request for a meeting with Biden to resolve these issues, citing the speaker’s decision to blow up the previous spending agreement as the reason. According to NBC News, the White House has stated “the current crisis is up to Republicans to fix.”

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5 – 9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.