Shutdown Seems Unavoidable

Key Takeaways
  • Speaker McCarthy fails to get Republican Continuing Resolution to keep the government open through the House, with 21 Republicans defying him.
  • In the Senate, a bipartisan discussion for a CR continues, but House Republicans will demand immigration and border-protection provisions in exchange for their support.
  • House and Senate leaders have told members to stay in DC for the weekend as the Sunday midnight deadline approaches.

With the midnight Sunday deadline quickly approaching, the House on Friday dealt the Speaker and his leadership team a sharp rebuke when they voted 198 Yes to 232 No to defeat the Republican Continuing Resolution (CR) designed to keep the government open for 30 days.  Twenty-one hardline conservative Republicans defied the Speaker and voted against the bill. These Republicans were joined by all Democrats to kill the CR.

What next?  Attention now turns to the Senate, where a bipartisan group is working to pass a CR that funds the government at current-year spending levels, includes money for Ukraine and disaster relief, and perhaps incorporates provisions to deal with the crisis at the Southern Border.  Many House Republicans say that for them to approve a bipartisan CR it must start dealing with the immigration crisis.  Not only do these Republicans want more money for border protection, but also stronger provisions on returning illegal immigrants and a resumption of construction on the border wall.  Independent Arizona Senator Sinema and members of the Senate Republican leadership team are in talks trying to develop an immigration and border protection amendment for the Senate CR.

The vote in the House today demonstrated that if a prompt reopening is going to occur after the now-more-likely shutdown, it will need to be a bipartisan bill, since the core group of conservative Republicans seem committed to opposing any short-term CR.  However, action at the border seems central to getting Republican votes in the House.

The deadline for Congressional action is midnight Sunday, October 1 and at this point there appears to be no strategy to get a bill passed and sent to the White House by the deadline.  House and Senate members have been told by their leaders to plan to spend the weekend in DC to vote if a bipartisan plan clears the Senate on Sunday.

Disclosures (show)

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