Shutdown deadline poses test for US Congress: Is compromise possible?
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[November 06, 2023]
By David Morgan and Jason Lange
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As the U.S. Congress eyes another looming partial
government shutdown deadline in less than two weeks, it also faces a
question: Whether lawmakers, and particularly a small but powerful band
of hardline Republicans, are capable of compromise.
House of Representatives Republicans say their slim 221-212 majority
will spend the coming week trying to pass full-year spending bills that
have no chance of clearing the Democratic-majority Senate, even as
jitters about the Nov. 17 shutdown deadline spread among their own
members.
The Senate, which Democrats control 51-49, has also been struggling to
pass bills funding the government through Sept. 30, adding to calls for
a stopgap "continuing resolution" to avert a shutdown.
"We shouldn't be trying to jam each other on this. We've established
that the majority of each party wants to keep the government running,"
said Republican Representative Tom Cole, who runs a powerful committee
that serves as gatekeeper on new legislation.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries sounded a similar note. "Let's
be clear - the only way forward is in a bipartisan way to pass a
continuing resolution at the fiscal 2023 (funding) level," Jeffries told
reporters. Data shows why lawmakers have such a hard time compromising.
Members of Congress are more polarized than ever before, according to a
Reuters analysis of voteview.com, a tool developed by political
scientists that measures partisanship.
Voteview.com data shows little overlap between the voting records of
Republicans and Democrats, reducing the chances of a bipartisan
compromise needed to move funding legislation through the
Republican-majority House and Democratic-led Senate.
Further complicating matters is a Republican majority so narrow that
House Speaker Mike Johnson can afford to lose no more than four party
votes on legislation Democrats oppose. That has elevated the power of
the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus and engulfed Republicans this
year in a perpetual political civil war.
"We've never been in anything like this," said Jeff Lewis, a political
scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles who manages
voteview.com. "There's no strategy for anybody in this circumstance to
try to get votes from the Democrats."
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The dome of the U.S. Capitol building is seen on a rainy day as the
deadline to avert a government shutdown approaches in Washington,
U.S., September 26, 2023. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo
Johnson, who succeeded Republican Kevin McCarthy as speaker last
month after three weeks of party infighting over the job, has sent
mixed signals about passing a continuing resolution, or "CR," that
would fund the government to Jan. 15, with the option of extending
further to April if more time is needed to get full-year funding
into place.
"He hasn't decided how that would be structured - if that would
happen," House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, the No. 2 Republican,
told reporters in the U.S. Capitol on Friday.
Johnson told Fox News Sunday that he and his advisers worked through
the weekend on "a stopgap measure" that "would allow us time to
continue the appropriations process."
Senior Republicans in both chambers believe a CR is unavoidable. But
for now, the new speaker needs to show hardline Republicans his
commitment to their demands that the House pass the full dozen 2024
appropriations bills individually before shifting to a CR.
Hardliners, some of whom orchestrated McCarthy's ouster for passing
a CR with Democratic support, are pushing for spending cuts and
tighter border security as conditions they would accept in a new
stopgap measure.
The House passed two of three Republican spending bills on their
agenda last week, covering congressional operations and the
environment. That brought their total to seven of the 12 needed,
while the Senate has passed three with bipartisan support.
"Clearly, commitments have been made and the momentum has to be
maintained," Republican Representative Frank Lucas told Reuters.
"But we are getting close to Nov. 17. An extension is necessary. We
will test the waters of rationality (this) week."
(Reporting by Jason Lange and David Morgan; additional reporting by
Richard Cowan; Editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan Oatis)
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