By TN Ashok
WASHINGTON, Sept 29 : The US government under President Joe Biden faces the stark reality of a government shutdown from tomorrow as the House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) threw up his hands in despair after hardliner Republicans voted out his last ditch effort to advance a defence appropriation bill preceding a Continuing Resolution of the senate to fund the federal agencies.
McCarthy threw in the towel and asked his fellow republicans to go home even as talks continued late Thursday as the setback to a bipartisan approach to fund the government partially through a continuing resolution including $6 billion of US aid to Ukraine fell through. US Media analysts commented that the speaker’s failure evidenced how much hold McCarthy held on the house and it has only weakened ever since he took the gavel in January after 15 gruelling rounds of voting.
McCarthy virtually watched with desperation from the chamber floor Thursday as hardliners and extreme right wing insisting on spending cuts blocked a vote to advance one of the 11 spending bills that are yet to go past the house.
The defeat brought back memories of a similar blockade in June when republican dissidents joined democrats and brought the floor to a halt to protest what they termed failed promises by McCarthy. The collapse of a procedural motion to advance the $826 billion defence appropriations bill came days after another failed vote on the same bill.
McCarthy said his plan was simple “Just keep working. Never give up. ” The same pitch on which he was elected. Republican leaders left as the house adjourned for the weekend with the speaker saying no additional votes were planned for Thursday or Friday and that lawmakers would be given ample notice if they were called back to work. Some had left the Capitol, for fundraising Golf events in their constituencies and for other events back in their districts.
“It looks like a coaching error,” said Rep. Ryan Zinke (R., Mont.) of the failed vote. “Wow. I think we’re all in this shock.”
The defeated 212 (democrats)-216 (republicans) vote on the rule to open debate on the defence bill showed chinks in the armour in avoiding a government shutdown, because military spending is generally popular among Republicans. Political observers said that if McCarthy can’t get his party, with its narrow majority ( 9 seats – 222 to 213) , to get a vote on a GOP embraced bill , he will have an even harder time convincing Republicans in advancing a broader bill that funds the government departments, much less favoured by the party.
Efforts to pass a short-term continuing resolution, known as a CR, to fund the government past Oct. 1 to allow for more time for the House and Senate to pass the 12 overall appropriations bills have also been stalled. Congress saw a flurry of activity behind closed doors as the rank-and-file lawmakers met in the offices of House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R., Minn.) to find a way to end imbroglio.
As a new strategy unfolds , leaders would mop up strength to pass a single rule vote to bring up multiple individual spending bills, such as the defence bill, but also others funding the Homeland Security Department and the one funding the State Department and foreign operations, and possibly others, according to Rep. Matt Gaetz (R., Fla.), an outspoken McCarthy critic.
Gaetz made it clear that he and many other GOP lawmakers would oppose any short-term bill, and instead wanted to press ahead immediately to pass the remaining 11 of 12 appropriations bills one by one. As the house has adjourned and representatives have left for the districts, the time is too shot for such an approach which would only eventually push the government into a shutdown.
“I’d rather work through those contentious items through the appropriations process than just try to figure out what’s the next ornament to hang on a continuing resolution,” he said.
But a slightly liberal minded Rep. Mike Lawler, Republican from New York, said he actually wanted a vote on a stopgap spending measure. But, as a backup, he said that he would work with Democrats to circumvent McCarthy and put an alternative on the floor if needed to minimize the length of a shutdown.
“If there is not going to be a CR coming out of the House Republican caucus then I will move forward with the discharge petition,” Lawler said, pointing to what is perceived as a step to circumvent the speaker. Such a petition would need signatures from a majority of lawmakers to force a vote, media reports said.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) however moved forward Thursday with a Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill that could be used as a legislative vehicle for a stopgap spending patch to try to avert a shutdown.
House Democrats, totally opposed to the deep spending cuts pushed by GOP members, as it slashes expenditure on social welfare programmes affecting retirees and the middle class of the US, their strongest voter base, are mounting pressure on McCarthy to yield. At one point, when the display board inside the chamber showed a tied voting, Democrats rushed including Rep. Sanford Bishop (D., Ga.) to cast a “no” vote, tipping the scales against Republicans.
They said the latest GOP setbacks showed Republicans weren’t up to running the chamber. “It’s certainly a referendum on whether they can govern,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D., Wash.). “We’ve been saying from the beginning that they can’t govern and they can’t govern.”
Paradoxically, McCarthy had predicted that Republicans would pass the rule needed to advance the defence appropriations bill, noting that he had persuaded Reps. Ralph Norman (R., S.C.) and Ken Buck (R., Colo.) to vote YES , but then two new Republicans — Hardliner Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.) and Eli Crane (R., Ariz.)—flipped their votes from “yes” to “no,” leaving McCarthy back to square one.
“I think they thought they had the votes,” said Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), the former House speaker. Asked if any rule votes had failed when she was speaker, she said “never. Not one,” and laughed.
In June dissident Republicans joined with Democrats in defeating a rule. But no rule vote has been blocked since 2002. Under normal circumstances, rule votes are a formality passed along party lines, but GOP insurgents leveraged them in the Congress to control the floor’ proceedings.
“We are very dysfunctional right now,” said Rep. Tim Burchett (R., Tenn.). “Speaker Pelosi, love her or hate her, she put something out there, and they’d rally around it…that’s what leaders do, media reports said.
McCarthy is up against a severe challenge to his experience as a congressman to win over votes and keep the government funded.