US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s attempt to restart his stalled spending agenda failed yesterday when Republicans for a third time blocked a procedural vote on defence spending, raising the risk of a government shutdown in just 10 days.
The House of Representatives voted 216-212 against beginning debate on an $886 billion defence appropriations bill amid opposition from a small group of hardline conservative Republicans.
It represented a setback for McCarthy the morning after his fractious 221-212 majority met for 2-1/2 hours seeking common ground on legislation to avert the fourth government shutdown in a decade beginning October 1.
As the vote failed, McCarthy told reporters that he will pursue the “same strategy I had from January: just keep working; never give up.”
Federal agencies will begin to shut down on October 1 unless Congress passes either a short-term continuing resolution, known as a CR, or a full-year funding bill. So far House Republicans have failed to unify around either possibility, and the ideas they have considered have only Republican support, making them unlikely to win support in the Democratic-majority Senate or be signed into law by President Joe Biden.
“Instead of decreasing the chance of a shutdown, Speaker McCarthy is actually increasing it by wasting time on extremist proposals that cannot become law in the Senate,” top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said.
The bill had been scheduled for a five-minute vote that Republicans kept open for over a half hour in a vain hope of winning additional votes.
Republican Representative Keith Self, who had voted to advance the bill, said the motion’s failure showed a lack of trust in McCarthy’s leadership.
“It’s a matter of trust,” Self told reporters while declining to elaborate. Asked about the mood in the chamber, Self said: “There were emotions running high.”
Donald Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, added to McCarthy’s distractions with a call to shut the government, as occurred three times during his four years in the White House.
“Republicans in Congress can and must defund all aspects of Joe Biden’s weaponised government that refuses to close the Border, and treats half the Country as Enemies of the State,” the former president said on his Truth Social platform.
Trump is awaiting four criminal trials over charges including his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
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