The House voted not to adjourn Friday, as GOP leaders told their members to “remain flexible” amid the threat of a government shutdown.
House lawmakers had been planning to hit the exits Friday morning and to be off all next week, after having passed their version of a bill to keep the government open through mid-February. But with Senate Democrats preparing to lead a filibuster that could result in a shutdown at midnight, all sides were scrambling to figure out what to do.
“I believe we ought to stay here and do our work,” said Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, Maryland Democrat.
Rank-and-file members said they were getting confusing directions from leaders about plans.
“We all knew this was coming. Shut the government down and leave? That would be dumb,” said Rep. Tom Rooney, Florida Republican.
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a member of House leadership, said she’d been planning to head home for the weekend, but said things were still uncertain.
“It’s unfolding,” she told reporters Friday morning.
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise advised colleagues to “remain flexible.”
Democrats, under intense pressure from immigrant-rights groups, have said they will not allow the government to be funded without also granting millions of illegal immigrant “Dreamers” legal status. Some of them are currently protected by the Obama-era deportation amnesty known as DACA.
Rep. Charlie Dent, Pennsylvania Republican, said his party’s leaders need to quickly relent on that issue.
“Everybody knows the answer to all this is a budget agreement. But there will not be a budget agreement [until] there’s an agreement on DACA. And the point is, once there is an agreement on DACA that’s bipartisan, that bipartisan DACA agreement will not get a majority of the majority in the House to support it,” he said.
“So leadership at some point is going to have to allow a vote on a bipartisan DACA bill, I think, to help break the logjam so that we can get to the budget agreement. And then we’ll get off this treadmill of continuing resolutions,” Mr. Dent said.
As the midnight deadline loomed, lawmakers began to eye another way out of the impasse, suggesting a short-term deal of days or weeks — but shorter than the four-week plan the House passed Thursday — was the immediate answer.
“We’ve given [them] 30 days,” said Rep. Tom Cole, Oklahoma Republican. “It’s pretty irresponsible to do five days and make us come back, so why not split the difference and do 12 or something and catch it in our normal routine?”
Under the current schedule, the House was to finish up business and then return Jan. 29.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said the GOP was trying to get out of town to run elbows with the rich at a global economy summit in Switzerland.
“Every year the Republicans plan the January schedule so that they can go to Davos,” she said. “They want to spend next week hobnobbing with their elitist friends instead of honoring their responsibilities to the American people.”
• David Sherfinski contributed to this story.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
• Sally Persons can be reached at spersons@washingtontimes.com.
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