President Biden on Wednesday said he’s still optimistic that a government shutdown can be averted, even though it looks increasingly likely after House Republicans spurned a bipartisan Senate plan to keep the government funded.
“I don’t think anything is inevitable in politics,” Mr. Biden said during a meeting with the Council of Advisors on Science in Technology in San Francisco.
But the president also acknowledged that he had few options left to avert a shutdown. When asked what could be done to stop the government from grinding to a halt, Mr. Biden said, “If I knew that I would have done it already.”
The U.S. is hurtling toward a government shutdown this weekend unless Congress takes action. Government funding expires at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday, and lawmakers are still far apart on spending levels and whether to give more aid to Ukraine.
As Congress debates a plan to keep open the government, federal workers’ paychecks and Americans who rely on certain social programs hang in the balance.
Mr. Biden said the impact of a government shutdown would extend beyond simply federal workers not getting a paycheck.
“If we have a government shutdown a lot of vital work in science and health could be impacted from cancer research to food safety. So the American people need our Republican friends in the House of Representatives to do their job — fund the government,” he said.
The Senate advanced a bill Tuesday that would continue the government at current funding levels through mid-November and would include some of the billions of dollars Mr. Biden is seeking for Ukraine and disaster relief.
However, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, California Republican, rejected the idea, saying there just wasn’t enough support among House Republicans.
That all but guarantees a government shutdown unless lawmakers can close a wide gulf between both chambers in just a few days. Even a stopgap spending bill would be unlikely before the current funding laws expire on Sunday.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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