Hardline shutdown push of the few frustrates US House Republicans
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[September 28, 2023]
By David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A small group of hardline Republicans in the U.S.
House of Representatives have set the federal government on a course
towards its fourth partial shutdown in a decade, angering some members
of their own caucus.
At least nine members of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's narrow 221-212
majority are refusing to back any stopgap measure to keep the government
funded past midnight Saturday -- and threatening to try to oust him from
leadership if he relies on Democratic votes to work around them.
That stands in sharp contrast to the Senate, where a bill to fund the
government through Nov. 17 sailed over a first procedural hurdle this
week in a bipartisan 77-19 vote.
"It's exceedingly frustrating," Representative Patrick McHenry told
Reuters. The North Carolina Republican argued that a shutdown would
leave them in a weak position when it comes to eventual negotiations
with the Democratic-led Senate and President Joe Biden.
"We're the only Republicans in town who control anything. So we need to
produce our legislative vehicles in order to get the best outcome we
possibly can," McCarthy said. "If we can't do that, we're going to be
left with a very bad hand."
To avoid a shutdown on Sunday, which would lead to the furlough of
hundreds of thousands of federal workers, House and Senate must agree on
a short-term continuing resolution or "CR" that would fund agency
operations, giving lawmakers time to pass full-scale fiscal 2024
spending bills and hammer out compromise legislation that Biden can sign
into law.
The shutdown threat has also caught the attention of Wall Street credit
ratings agencies, who warn that repeated failures to fund the government
could take a toll on its creditworthiness.
Facing pressure from his right flank, McCarthy is pursuing a partisan
Republican CR that would cut current government funding levels and
contain provisions on security and immigration at the U.S. border with
Mexico.
Those proposals are unlikely to win the Democratic support they would
need to pass the Senate, or to be signed by Biden.
HARDLINE HOLDOUTS
But Republican hardliners, including members of the House Freedom Caucus
and allies of former President Donald Trump, are resisting even
McCarthy's partisan plan. Instead they want Congress to pass a full
slate of 12 appropriations bills. Since July, the House has passed only
one.
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell R-KY, speaks to the media at
the U.S. Capitol after a tentative deal is set to avert a second
partial government shutdown in Washington, U.S., February 12, 2019.
REUTERS/Mary F. Calvert/ File Photo
"Hold the line! #NoCR," Representative Matt Rosendale said this week
on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Representative Andy Biggs, a former Freedom Caucus chairman and
another CR opponent, said any stopgap funding measure would be a
"failure."
"That's not acceptable to our constituents and why I oppose any CR,"
Biggs said on X.
Past shutdowns have not paid political dividends for Republicans.
The record-setting, 34-day 2018 shutdown came weeks after
Republicans lost their House majority during Trump's term. Two years
later, voters booted Trump from the White House.
Hardliners including Representatives Matt Gaetz and Eli Crane have
said on X that they are battling a "Uniparty" of Washington
Democrats and Republicans.
Representative Dan Bishop, who is running for North Carolina state
attorney general, said in a recent interview with conservative media
that Republicans who backed a CR should face election challengers
from within their own party.
Critics contend that some of the holdouts are simply trying to draw
attention to their own campaigns for higher office.
"They're talking to a small portion of America," said Republican
Representative Darrell Issa. He noted that the holdouts have not
said if there were any possible changes that would secure their
votes for a CR, despite McCarthy's efforts to create a measure that
meets their demands.
That resistance makes it more likely that in the end the House will
need to accept a more bipartisan bill, either the Senate's CR or a
compromise bill proposed by the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus.
"We should never let five or 10 people push us around like this.
They have no alternative plan," said Representative Don Bacon,
describing himself as a "pragmatic conservative." "They're caught up
in an echo chamber, an echo chamber of group think."
(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Scott Malone and Timothy
Gardner)
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