- The Washington Times - Wednesday, September 27, 2023

A version of this story appeared in the On Background newsletter from The Washington Times. Click here to receive On Background delivered directly to your inbox each Friday.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday doubled down on demands that Democrats accept border security as part of a stopgap spending bill to avoid a government shutdown this weekend.

He said President Biden should come to the negotiating table to talk about Republicans’ plans to shut down the border and keep the government open, not vice versa.

“So why am I asking the president to sit down? Because the Senate has not done their job,” said Mr. McCarthy, California Republican. “The Senate has not taken up the House’s work, so no, the president should step in and do something about it. Otherwise, the government will shut down.”

Congress has until midnight Saturday to pass a stopgap spending bill to prevent a partial government shutdown. The Democrat-run Senate has leapfrogged the House in getting a bill on the floor, but Mr. McCarthy has signaled that he won’t take up that bill.

The speaker promised to bring the House’s stopgap legislation to a vote on Friday. 


SEE ALSO: Senate stopgap bill stopping in the House, says McCarthy


The House and Senate stopgap bills are wildly different and both are dead on arrival in the opposing chambers. The standoff all but cements a partial government shutdown. 

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer’s bipartisan bill, which has support from GOP leadership in the Senate, would extend current government funding levels until Nov. 17 and includes over $6 billion in Ukraine aid and disaster funding. 

But Mr. Schumer believed that bipartisanship was the key to avoiding a shutdown, and warned Mr. McCarthy to stop playing partisan politics with the deadline looming.

“You can’t do this in a partisan way,” Mr. Schumer said. “We’re waiting for a bipartisan approach to come from Speaker McCarthy. If he doesn’t come with a bipartisan approach, if he continues partisanship, He’s going to cause a shutdown. He knows that.”

Many House Republicans have spurned more money for Ukraine, especially in a measure to keep the government open. The conference has also shifted en masse to include the House’s top border bill, the Secure the Border Act.

Mr. McCarthy blamed the impasse on the Senate and the White House because they won’t support the Secure the Border Act, which the House passed in May.


SEE ALSO: Rep. Matt Gaetz not ready to say who would replace an ousted Speaker McCarthy


Seemingly heeding the House GOP’s call, Senate Republicans have begun to work on amendments to the upper chamber’s stopgap bill that would include border security.

However, House Republicans have yet to land on a unified vision for a stopgap bill. So far, lawmakers have produced three different options and Mr. McCarthy is struggling to wrangle at least seven holdout votes from conservatives who say they will never support a short-term spending bill.

Mr. McCarthy wants to bring a stopgap bill that slashes spending to $1.471 trillion for its 30-day duration, includes most of the Secure the Border Act and creates a debt commission. 

The holdouts are unlikely to change their minds. 

“My advice is, ‘Buckle up, there’s turbulence ahead,’” said Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee, one of the holdouts.

Rep. Byron Donalds, Florida Republican, helped to negotiate the first stopgap floated in the House. He said that the Senate’s bill was a “nonstarter.” 

“It’s dead over here, are you kidding me,” Mr. Donalds said. “First of all, you continue spending, you have $6.2 billion for Ukraine. They do nothing to secure our southern border. That is just a nonstarter. The Senate needs to get real.”

Rep. Dusty Johnson, South Dakota Republican, worked with Mr. Donalds on the original House stopgap bill. He believed that if the House had passed a measure with border security legislation baked in sooner, they would have had better leverage against the Senate

“An overwhelming number of my colleagues continue to say that it would have been a stronger position for us had we done that last week,” Mr. Johnson said. 

• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.

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