ReportWire

Tag: shutdown

  • Fact-check: GOP, Dem government shutdown talking points

    [ad_1]

    In 2013, then-businessman and reality TV star Donald Trump shared his vision on Fox News about the role a president should play in a shutdown: “You have to be nice and be angry and be wild and cajole and do all sorts of things, but you have to get a deal.”

    Now as president, Trump has taken a different approach. After failing to reach a bipartisan agreement, he mocked Democrats by posting an expletive-laced video generated by artificial intelligence and set to mariachi music falsely showing U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries wearing a sombrero and U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer saying that “nobody likes Democrats anymore,” so the party is seeking favor with “illegal aliens.”

    Welcome to the 2025 government shutdown. 

    At PolitiFact, we have fact-checked lawmakers’ and pundits’ statements about government shutdowns for more than a decade. When Congress can’t reach a funding agreement, both sides of the political aisle whip up talking points about what a shutdown means for the economy, immigration, worker paychecks, disaster response and services for low-income families. The blame is nearly always placed on the other party.

    PolitiFact is here to help you cut through the spin.

    Sign up for PolitiFact texts

    A reminder: Republicans control the presidency and both chambers of Congress. But passing legislation to extend government funding at current levels would require, under longstanding rules, more than a half dozen Democrats to side with Republicans in order to reach the 60-vote threshold to advance to a vote. This gives Democrats some negotiating leverage, which they are seeking to use in the spending fight.

    It’s Day 1 of the shutdown, and here’s our round-up of fact-checks. Spot a statement about the shutdown you want fact-checked? Email [email protected].

    Social services

    Women, Infant and Children program will “not be funded.”— House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in Sept. 29 remarks to reporters.

    Johnson omits that enrollees will still likely get services, at least initially. But much depends on how long the shutdown lasts.

    The Agriculture Department’s shutdown plan said its Women, Infants and Children program, which provides food to low-income families, shall continue operations “subject to the availability of funding.”  WIC has 6.9 million participants. 

    WIC should be able to continue for at least one week, said Alison Hard, National WIC Association policy director. After that, operations will vary by state, depending on their funds.

    During a shutdown, state WIC programs have options to temporarily fill the funding gap including various USDA sources, state money and requesting early rebate payments from their contracted infant formula manufacturers.

    Past shutdowns

    “Back in 2013, Trump said it was the President’s job to negotiate and avoid a shutdown.” — Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., in a Sept. 29 X post

    That’s an accurate paraphrase of Trump’s remarks. 

    In an Oct. 7, 2013, interview with then-Fox News host Greta Van Susteren, Trump criticized then-President Barack Obama for not being a dealmaker during the shutdown. In full, he said:

    “You have to get everybody in a room. You have to be a leader. The president has to lead. He has to get (the Speaker of the House) and everybody else in a room, and they have to make a deal. You have to be nice and be angry and be wild and cajole and do all sorts of things, but you have to get a deal.”

    Trump made similar remarks in a September 2013 “Fox & Friends” phone interview: “Problems start from the top, and they have to get solved from the top, and the president’s the leader, and he’s got to get everybody in a room, and he’s got to lead.”

    A tourist photographs a sign announcing that the Library of Congress is closed, on the first day of a partial government shutdown, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP)

    Health care

    “Republicans are spiking health insurance premiums by 75% for everyday Americans” if they don’t extend enhanced ACA subsidies. — Rep Katherine Clark, D-Mass., in a Sept. 12 X post.

    Mostly True.

    If the Republican-controlled Congress does not extend Affordable Care Act enhanced subsidies before they expire at the end of this year, enrollees will have to pay more.

    A KFF analysis of federal data found that the average increase in out-of-pocket coverage cost for enrollees would be 79%, with state-by-state average increases ranging from 49% to 195%.

    This cost increase would come from a combination of insurance premium increases and the disappearance of subsidies, rather than from “spiking health insurance premiums” alone.

    More than two weeks after Clark’s statement — and after we published the fact check — KFF produced a revised figure for average increases based on new data: 114%.

    “Democrats so-called proposal is a partisan wish list with a $1.5 trillion spending increase tacked onto a four-week funding bill.” — Johnson, in a Sept. 29 press release. 

    The Republican talking point misses context about the Democrats’ proposal.

    The Sept. 17 Democratic proposal latches government funding through Oct. 31, known as a continuing resolution, to some Democratic priorities, including health care assistance and limiting Trump’s ability to claw back funds previously approved by Congress.

    The bill calls for permanently extending enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that were passed in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic and extended in 2022. Those are set to expire Dec. 31. The Democratic bill would also reverse cuts to Medicaid and other health programs that Republicans enacted in their signature tax and spending legislation.

    The Democrats’ measure would restore funding for public broadcasting that Republicans nixed in July and includes over $320 million for security for lawmakers, the executive branch and the Supreme Court. (Republicans have proposed $88 million in security funding in their resolution bill.)

    The bill also contains mandates for how the Trump administration can spend money and would hinder the White House’s recent attempt to cancel almost $5 billion in foreign aid.

    The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a group that’s hawkish on the deficit, said in a Sept. 18 press release that Democrats’ proposal in its entirety would add $1.5 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.

    “The (continuing resolution) itself — the part that funds the government — would not add $1.5 trillion to the debt, but the bill that Democrats have proposed includes other provisions that would,” Chris Towner, the group’s policy director, wrote in an email. “The bill repeals the health spending cuts that were included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which would cost about $1.1 trillion over a decade to repeal.” 

    Towner also said the Democrats’ provision to make the enhanced ACA subsidies permanent would cost about $350 billion over a decade.

    People take photos with a sign announcing that the Library of Congress is closed, on the first day of a partial government shutdown, Oct. 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP)

    If enhanced subsidies are not extended, people with insurance through the Affordable Care Act will see their premiums rise “twice as much in the rural areas.” — Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., in a Sept. 28 interview on CBS “Face the Nation.” 

    Mostly True. 

    There are at least two ways to interpret Klobuchar’s statement: that she was comparing rural enrollees’ costs with people living elsewhere, or comparing their costs with what they paid before.

    Klobuchar’s office told PolitiFact that the senator was referring to rural enrollees seeing increases that were double what they had paid before, and that interpretation aligns with what Klobuchar has said in other settings.

    An analysis by the Century Foundation, a progressive think tank, found that out-of-pocket insurance costs would increase on average in rural counties from $713 to $1,473 — a 107% increase, or slightly more than a doubling.

    Comparing rural enrollees’ cost increases with people elsewhere, amounts to a disproportionately large increase for rural areas, but it’s not twice as much.

    Enrollees in rural counties would see average out-of-pocket losses of $760 from expiring enhanced subsidies, compared with $624 for all counties and $593 for urban counties. That’s 22% more for rural enrollees compared to all others, and 28% more compared with urban enrollees. 

    Government workers

    “If the government shuts down, members of Congress still get paid. The janitors never get paid.” — Daniel Koh on The People’s Cabinet podcast episode Sept. 29. 

    Mostly True.

    Members of the House and Senate continue to get paid during a shutdown. Federal law says that federal employees get back pay, but the law does not extend that to contractors, a group that includes many janitors. Some private employers with federal contracts may find ways to pay their employees, but there is nothing in federal law that requires it.

    The U.S. Capitol dome and a traffic turn signal are seen from Pennsylvania Avenue, Oct. 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP)

    “FEMA won’t be funded” during hurricane season because of the shutdown. — Johnson in Sept. 29 remarks to reporters.

    Johnson was correct that Congress had not agreed on FEMA funding, but a Department of Homeland Security shutdown procedures plan estimates that 84% of FEMA employees will continue working. (DHS oversees FEMA.)

    “Bottom line: hurricanes don’t care about politics. FEMA will still respond. But recovery will stall if Congress can’t do its job,” said Craig Fugate, who led FEMA during President Barack Obama’s administration after leading Florida’s emergency management under then-Republican Gov. Jeb Bush. “This isn’t new — both parties own the blame.”

    The agency’s recovery efforts are most at risk, Fugate said, because they depend on how much money remains in the Disaster Relief Fund. “Those dollars aren’t tied to the shutdown, but they usually run low this time of year. Normally Congress passes a continuing resolution to add money. A shutdown means that doesn’t happen. That slows recovery projects, not the immediate response.”

    The fund had about $2.3 billion at the end of August, which is considered low. 

    RELATED: Trump has defied norms on executive power. What actions could he take amid a government shutdown?

    RELATED: Fact-check: Past government shutdowns cost the U.S. economy billions

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Government Shutdown Begins As Nation Faces New Period Of Uncertainty – KXL

    [ad_1]

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Plunged into a government shutdown, the U.S. is confronting a fresh cycle of uncertainty after President Donald Trump and Congress failed to strike an agreement to keep government programs and services running by Wednesday’s deadline.

    Roughly 750,000 federal workers are expected to be furloughed, some potentially fired by the Trump administration. Many offices will be shuttered, perhaps permanently, as Trump vows to “do things that are irreversible, that are bad” as retribution. His deportation agenda is expected to run full speed ahead, while education, environmental and other services sputter. The economic fallout is expected to ripple nationwide.

    “We don’t want it to shut down,” Trump said at the White House before the midnight deadline.

    But the president, who met privately with congressional leadership this week, appeared unable to negotiate any deal between Democrats and Republicans to prevent that outcome.

    This is the third time Trump has presided over a federal funding lapse, the first since his return to the White House this year, in a remarkable record that underscores the polarizing divide over budget priorities and a political climate that rewards hardline positions rather than more traditional compromises.

    Plenty of blame being thrown around

    The Democrats picked this fight, which was unusual for the party that prefers to keep government running, but their voters are eager to challenge the president’s second-term agenda. Democrats are demanding funding for health care subsidies that are expiring for millions of people under the Affordable Care Act, spiking the costs of insurance premiums nationwide.

    Republicans have refused to negotiate for now and have encouraged Trump to steer clear of any talks. After the White House meeting, the president posted a cartoonish fake video mocking the Democratic leadership that was widely viewed as unserious and racist.

    What neither side has devised is an easy offramp to prevent what could become a protracted closure. The ramifications are certain to spread beyond the political arena, upending the lives of Americans who rely on the government for benefit payments, work contracts and the various services being thrown into turmoil.

    “What the government spends money on is a demonstration of our country’s priorities,” said Rachel Snyderman, a former White House budget official who is the managing director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank in Washington.

    Shutdowns, she said, “only inflict economic cost, fear and confusion across the country.”

    Economic fallout expected to ripple nationwide

    An economic jolt could be felt in a matter of days. The government is expected Friday to produce its monthly jobs report, which may or may not be delivered.

    While the financial markets have generally “shrugged” during past shutdowns, according to a Goldman Sachs analysis, this one could be different partly because there are no signs of broader negotiations.

    “There are also few good analogies to this week’s potential shutdown,” the analysis said.

    Across the government, preparations have been underway. Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, headed by Russ Vought, directed agencies to execute plans for not just furloughs, as are typical during a federal funding lapse, but mass firings of federal workers. It’s part of the Trump administration’s mission, including its Department of Government Efficiency, to shrink the federal government.

    What’s staying open and shutting down

    The Medicare and Medicaid health care programs are expected to continue, though staffing shortages could mean delays for some services. The Pentagon would still function. And most employees will stay on the job at the Department of Homeland Security.

    But Trump has warned that the administration could focus on programs that are important to Democrats, “cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like.”

    As agencies sort out which workers are essential, or not, Smithsonian museums are expected to stay open at least until Monday. A group of former national park superintendents urged the Trump administration to close the parks to visitors, arguing that poorly staffed parks in a shutdown are a danger to the public and put park resources at risk.

    No easy exit as health care costs soar

    Ahead of Wednesday’s start of the fiscal year, House Republicans had approved a temporary funding bill, over opposition from Democrats, to keep government running into mid-November while broader negotiations continue.

    But that bill has failed repeatedly in the Senate, including late Tuesday. It takes a 60-vote threshold for approval, which requires cooperation between the two parties. A Democratic bill also failed. With a 53-47 GOP majority, Democrats are leveraging their votes to demand negotiation.

    Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said Republicans are happy to discuss the health care issue with Democrats — but not as part of talks to keep the government open. More votes are expected Wednesday.

    The standoff is a political test for Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who has drawn scorn from a restive base of left-flank voters pushing the party to hold firm in its demands for health care funding.

    “Americans are hurting with higher costs,” Schumer said after the failed vote Tuesday.

    House Speaker Mike Johnson sent lawmakers home nearly two weeks ago after having passed the GOP bill, blaming Democrats for the shutdown.

    “They want to fight Trump,” Johnson said Tuesday on CNBC. “A lot of good people are going to be hurt because of this.”

    Trump, during his meeting with the congressional leaders, expressed surprise at the scope of the rising costs of health care, but Democrats left with no path toward talks.

    During Trump’s first term, the nation endured its longest-ever shutdown, 35 days, over his demands for funds Congress refused to provide to build his promised U.S.-Mexico border wall.

    In 2013, the government shut down for 16 days during the Obama presidency over GOP demands to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Other closures date back decades.

    [ad_2]

    Grant McHill

    Source link

  • Health care at the heart of Capitol Hill standoff as shutdown looms – WTOP News

    [ad_1]

    With a government shutdown just hours away, one of the sticking points between Republicans and Democrats involves health care, specifically whether to extend premium subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.

    With a government shutdown just hours away, one of the key sticking points between Republicans and Democrats involves health care, specifically whether to extend premium subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.

    The debate centers on enhanced tax credits that help millions of Americans afford insurance through ACA marketplaces. These subsidies are currently scheduled to expire at the end of 2025, but Democrats are pushing for action now to avoid disruptions during the upcoming open enrollment period.

    “Twenty-two million people across the country get their coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces,” said Anne Reid, policy director of the Funders Forum on Accountable Health at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University.

    “The vast majority of those folks have some level of subsidization of their coverage, which is tied to their income.”

    Reid warns that without an extension, millions could lose coverage or face unaffordable premiums.

    The credits were expanded in recent years to raise income thresholds, allowing more Americans to qualify for help.

    “The credits were enhanced in the sense that a higher minimum income was set so more people could qualify to receive some relief toward these premiums,” Reid said.

    Reid previously served as a senior congressional staffer, where she contributed to health workforce policy during the development of the Affordable Care Act.

    Democrats want the extension included in the continuing resolution needed to keep the government open. Reid said they view it as a must-pass provision.

    “Democrats are arguing that we need to handle this in must-pass legislation, which at the moment is the appropriations bill.”

    They also want to reverse earlier Medicaid cuts that could result in more than 10 million people losing coverage.

    But Republicans argue the funding bill should be a “clean” continuing resolution, focused solely on keeping the government running.

    “Let’s just keep the government going on current fiscal year levels through the middle of November, to give us some time to work things out and negotiate a longer-term package,” Reid said, summarizing the GOP position.

    University of Maryland finance professor David Kass said Democrats are pushing to extend the expanded benefits into 2026, but Republicans want to debate the issue separately from the stopgap funding measure.

    “Fewer Americans would be able to purchase health insurance” if the premium help isn’t available as open enrollment begins, Kass said.

    Reid said the timing is critical, not just for consumers, but for insurers who need clarity to set rates.

    “Days and weeks matter in terms of being able to rightsize the premium levels.”

    The potential shutdown could also hit the D.C. region particularly hard, given its large federal workforce.

    “Job security and financial security would very acutely be felt in the D.C. region, given our demographics and who all comprises the federal workforce,” Reid said.

    With open enrollment approaching and budget negotiations stalled, Reid said the lack of clarity could leave consumers in limbo and millions of Americans at risk of losing affordable health coverage.

    Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.

    © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

    [ad_2]

    Mike Murillo

    Source link

  • Shutdown looms over DC region: Expert warns of unprecedented local impact – WTOP News

    [ad_1]

    As the federal government inches closer to a shutdown, the D.C. region faces a uniquely precarious moment, and it’s a moment that economic experts said is unlike any previous shutdown.

    As the federal government inches closer to another shutdown, the D.C. region is in a precarious position — a point that economic experts said is unlike any previous shutdown.

    “I don’t think we’ve seen anything like this before. So no, this is in many respects unprecedented. We’re charting new territories,” said Terry Clower, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University.

    Clower pointed to a troubling convergence of factors: 18,000 federal jobs lost this year, a decline of 8,500 jobs in professional and business services and a sluggish tourism sector. These stressors, he said, make the region especially vulnerable.

    “All of these things make this to where the impact of the shutdown will be felt more severely,” he said.

    While federal employees typically receive back pay after shutdowns, contractors and service workers often do not. Many are still recovering from earlier rounds of government cutbacks.

    “If they’re in survival mode now, it’s going to make surviving even harder because they may not have those cash reserves,” Clower said.

    What makes this shutdown different, Clower added, is the uncertainty stemming from messaging by the Office of Budget Management, which he said is suggesting the shutdown could be used as a pretext for mass firings.

    “It makes it just a lot more uncertain about how long it would last, and what the net impacts would be on the federal workforce.”

    If layoffs do occur, they could further strain the job market. For those workers let go, finding another job won’t be easy and retraining programs often only kick in after formal unemployment, leaving many in limbo.

    “It’s not just like you can stop being an administrator in the federal government and just go find a job that’s equivalent in the private sector,” Clower said.

    The shutdown could also impact community organizations and nonprofits. Clower warned it may push more residents into financial stress and food insecurity, with already limited resources available to help.

    “This is going to put some more people into financial stress … and how do we respond to the need? Because, again, we don’t know exactly how it’s going to play out,” he said.

    As Congress remains gridlocked, Clower said the region is bracing for impact while still hoping for a swift resolution.

    Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.

    © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

    [ad_2]

    Mike Murillo

    Source link

  • Trump to meet with US congressional leaders in last-ditch effort to avoid shutdown

    [ad_1]

    Donald Trump has reversed course and is purportedly planning to host a bipartisan gathering of the top four US congressional leaders at the White House on Monday afternoon in a last-ditch effort to avoid a looming government shutdown, the House speaker and the US president’s fellow Republican Mike Johnson said on Sunday.

    Trump’s climbdown comes days after he scrapped a planned meeting to discuss the crisis with Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, the respective Democratic minority leaders in the House and Senate.

    The president accused the pair of making “unserious and ridiculous demands” in return for Democratic votes to support a Republican funding agreement to keep the government open beyond Tuesday night – but left the door open for a meeting “if they get serious about the future of our nation”.

    Johnson, appearing on CNN, said he spoke with Trump at length on Saturday, and that the two Democrats had agreed to join him and John Thune, the Republican Senate majority leader, for an Oval Office discussion Monday.

    Related: Crunch time: Democrats ready for shutdown standoff over Republican health cuts

    He did not say if Trump would be negotiating directly with the Democrats – but portrayed Trump as keen to “try to convince them to follow common sense and do what’s right by the American people”.

    Schumer, talking to NBC’s Meet the Press, said he was “hopeful we can get something real done” – but was uncertain of the mood they would find Trump in when they sat down for the 2pm ET discourse.

    “If the president at this meeting is going to rant, and just yell at Democrats, and talk about all his alleged grievances, and say this, that, and the other thing, we won’t get anything done,” Schumer said.

    “We don’t want a shutdown. We hope that they sit down and have a serious negotiation with us.”

    According to CBS News on Sunday, meanwhile, Trump is not hopeful the meeting will lead to an agreement.

    The network’s chief national correspondent, Robert Costa, told Face the Nation he spoke with Trump by phone Sunday morning and that a government shutdown “looks likely at this point based on my conversation … He says both sides are at a stalemate.”

    Costa said: “Inside the White House, sources are saying president Trump actually welcomes a shutdown in the sense that he believes he can wield executive power to get rid of what he calls waste, fraud and abuse.”

    If no deal is reached, chunks of the federal government are set to shut down as early as Wednesday morning, with the White House telling agencies to prepare to furlough or fire scores of workers.

    Republican and Democratic leaders have been pointing fingers of blame at each other for days as Tuesday’s deadline for a funding agreement approaches.

    The narrow House Republican majority passed a short-term spending bill known as a continuing resolution earlier in September that would keep the government funded for seven weeks – but it faces opposition in the Senate, where it needs the support of at least eight Democrats to pass.

    Democrats have made the extension of expiring healthcare protections a condition of their support, warning that planned Republican spending cuts would affect millions of people.

    “If we don’t extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, more than 20 million Americans are going to experience dramatically increased premiums, copays, deductibles, in an environment where the cost of living in America is already too high,” Jeffries told CNN on Sunday.

    “We’ve made clear that we’re ready, willing and able to sit down with anyone, at any time and at any place, in order to make sure that we can actually fund the government, avoid a painful Republican caused shutdown, and address the healthcare crisis that Republicans have caused that’s [affecting] everyday Americans.”

    But Trump and Republicans have repeatedly accused their political opponents of exploiting the issue to force a shutdown while there was still plenty of time to fix healthcare before the subsidies expire on 31 December.

    “The Obamacare subsidies is a policy debate that has to be determined by the end of the year, not right now, while we’re simply trying to keep the government open so we can have all these debates,” Johnson said.

    “There is nothing partisan about this continuing resolution, nothing. We didn’t add a single partisan priority or policy rider at all. We’re operating completely in good faith to get more time.”

    Related: Democrats reject spending bill over healthcare cuts as shutdown looms

    Thune, on Meet the Press, also attempted to blame Democrats for the potential shutdown and said “the ball is in their court” as to the next development.

    “There is a bill sitting at the desk in the Senate right now, we could pick it up today and pass it, that has been passed by the House that will be signed into law by the president to keep the government open,” he said.

    “What the Democrats have done is take the federal government as a hostage, and by extension the American people, to try [to] get a whole laundry list of things that they want.”

    But US senator Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat who has previously urged his party leadership to be stronger in standing up to the Trump administration, said the problem was Republicans handing “a complete blank check” to the president to spend money on his own political interests, and not those of the nation.

    “Until now the president has said he’d rather shut down the government than prevent those healthcare costs from spiking,” he told CNN.

    “Democrats are united right now on this question. I’m glad we’re finally talking. We’ll see what happens.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Government shutdown layoffs? How many federal workers could be affected in Tennessee?

    [ad_1]

    The first government shutdown in six and a half years is quickly approaching, and the White House is encouraging federal agencies to reflect during the pause.

    In the past, when a government shutdown has occurred, nonessential federal workers have been temporarily furloughed, and essential workers have stayed on the job without pay while Congress resolves funding disputes and then votes to pay the workers back retroactively.

    Here’s what we could see from a government shutdown in 2025.

    What is the deadline to avoid a government shutdown?

    This potential shutdown is quite different, as it comes during an administration that has actively been reducing the federal workforce since it began nine months ago. Government funding lapses at midnight on Sept. 30, and the president canceled meetings with House and Senate minority leaders as recently as Sept. 23.

    How likely is a government shutdown in 2025?

    The memo from the Office of Management and Budget (OPM) said agencies should “use this opportunity to consider” reductions in the workforce for programs that are discretionary, have another source of funding or that are “not consistent with the President’s priorities.”

    Earlier in September, members of Congress failed to advance any short-term funding extensions before a holiday break. Now, there are fewer than five days before the end of the month, and subsequently the end of the funding budget.

    The main issues are about healthcare. Democrats say they will not agree to fund the government unless Republicans deal with rising healthcare costs. This includes reversing the recent cuts to Medicaid and extending the subsidies for Obamacare premiums.

    Democrats proposed a temporary funding bill that would have restored money for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It also aimed to stop the White House from withholding funds that Congress had approved. However, this bill did not pass in the Senate.

    How many federal employees are there in Tennessee?

    According to the OPM’s latest data, as of Sept. 2024, there were 32,574 federal employees across all agencies in Tennessee, about 1.5% of all federal employees in the United States.

    The largest agency in the state is the Department of Veterans Affairs, which has 13,632 employees. The next largest agency in the state is the Department of the Army with 2,902 employees. In the state of Tennessee, there are six bases and installations in all three major regions.

    It is difficult to ascertain the precise count of federal employees because the Trump administration undertook efforts to cut federal jobs and impose a funding freeze through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). As a result, many employees faced firings, layoffs, and accepted early resignations.

    Many of the people fired were still on provisionary status, and some of Trump’s attempts at workforce reduction have been blocked or reversed by lower courts.

    However, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration lost more than 880 probationary employees. Approximately 900 NASA employees accepted Trump’s offer of deferred resignation. In March, a Veterans Affairs memo announced plans to reduce the workforce by more than 80,000 workers.

    What agencies are essential during a government shutdown?

    Essential services include the U.S. Postal Service, Medicare and Social Security services, and air traffic control. It should be noted that, despite these industries being essential, their employees will not be paid while the government continues its shutdown.

    The federal Medicare and Medicaid health insurance programs are considered mandatory spending, meaning benefits won’t be impacted if the government shuts down. The Social Security Administration is projected to pay out $1.6 trillion to 72 million beneficiaries this year, and these payments will not be disrupted by the shutdown.

    Air travel continues during a shutdown because the Federal Aviation Administration’s air traffic control and the Transportation Security Administration are essential services. During the previous shutdown in late 2018, some TSA checkpoints were closed and travelers faced longer lines when agents didn’t report to work, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

    How many US government shutdowns have there been?

    The federal government has closed down 21 times since 1977, with each shutdown averaging about eight days. The most recent one lasted for 35 days, from December 2018 to January 2019, during Donald Trump‘s first term as president.

    Jordan Green covers trending news for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at jordan.green@commercialappeal.com.

    This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Government shutdown layoffs could impact these Tennessee workers

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Senate Rejects Competing Bills To Fund Government, Increasing Risk Of Shutdown On Oct. 1 – KXL

    [ad_1]

    WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate rejected competing measures on Friday to fund federal agencies for a few weeks when the new budget year begins on Oct. 1, increasing prospects for a partial government shutdown on that date.

    Leaders of the two parties sought to blame the other side for the standoff. Democrats accused Republicans of not negotiating with them to address some of their priorities on health care as part of the funding measure, even though they knew Democratic votes would be needed to get a bill to the president’s desk.

    Republicans said Democrats were making demands that would dramatically increase spending and were not germane to the core issue of keeping agencies fully running for a short period of time while negotiations continued on a full-year spending package.

    It’s unclear how the two sides will be able to avoid a shutdown. Republicans are planning on what amounts to a do-over vote on their proposal close to the deadline in the hopes that more Democrats will have second thoughts. Democrats are repeating their demand that Republicans sit down with them and work on a compromise.

    “The theater must end,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said after the vote. “Let’s sit down and negotiate.”

    Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., gave no indication of a change in course.

    “All it takes is a handful of Democrats to join the Republicans in keeping the government open and funded, and to ensure we have a chance to get the appropriations process completed in the way it was intended,” Thune said.

    House Republicans unify behind a short-term bill
    The Senate action came after the House earlier in the day passed the Republican-led funding bill. The measure would extend government funding generally at current levels for seven weeks. The bill would also add about $88 million in security funding for lawmakers and members of the Supreme Court and executive branch in the wake of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

    The vote was 217-212. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine was the lone Democratic member to support the bill. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., also said she tried to vote for the bill but was not recognized by the presiding officer. She was listed officially as not voting.

    House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana said he knew he had few votes to spare as he sought to persuade fellow Republicans to vote for the funding patch, something many in his conference have routinely opposed in past budget fights. But this time, GOP members saw a chance to portray the Democrats as responsible for a shutdown.

    “The ball is in Chuck Schumer’s court. I hope he does the right thing. I hope he does not choose to shut the government down and inflict pain on the American people,” Johnson said.

    President Donald Trump had urged House Republicans to pass the bill and put the burden on Democrats to oppose it. GOP leaders often need Trump’s help to win over holdouts on legislation.

    “Every House Republican should UNIFY, and VOTE YES!” Trump said on his social media site.

    Democrats press for action on health care
    Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said that in opposing the continuing resolution, Democrats were working to protect the health care of the American people. He said that with Republicans controlling the White House and both branches of Congress, “Republicans will own a government shutdown. Period. Full stop.”

    The Senate moved quickly after the House vote to take up the measure plus the Democratic counter. Both bills fell far short of the 60 votes required for passage.

    The Democratic proposal would extend enhanced health insurance subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, plus reverse Medicaid cuts that were included in Republicans’ big tax breaks and spending cuts bill enacted earlier this year.

    The Democratic measure actually received more votes than the Republican one due to absences. The 47-45 vote went strictly along party lines.

    “The American people will look at what Republicans are doing, look at what Democrats are doing, and it will be clear that public sentiment will be on our side,” Schumer said.

    The Republican measure gained 44 votes, including from Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania. But 48 voted against it, including two Republicans, Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

    Uncertainty ahead as lawmakers leave Washington
    Both chambers of Congress are out of session next week because of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. Senators will return on Sept. 29. House Republicans don’t plan to be back until October. They were advised by leadership Friday that no votes would take place on Sept. 29-30, as previously scheduled.

    The move by House GOP leadership essentially forces the Senate to approve the House-passed measure or risk a shutdown. Johnson said lawmakers have a lot of work to do in their districts.

    Most Democrats appear to be backing Schumer’s demand that there be negotiations on the bill — and support his threats of a shutdown, even as it is unclear how they would get out of it.

    “Look, the president said really boldly, don’t even talk to Democrats. Unless he’s forgotten that you need a supermajority to pass a budget in the Senate, that’s obviously his signal he wants a shutdown,” said Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.

    While the Democratic measure to fund the government had no chance of passage, it does give Democrats a way to show voters their focus on cutting health care costs. Unless Congress act, tax credits going to low- and middle-income people who purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act will expire. That will mean a big increase in premiums for millions of Americans.

    “There are some things we have to address. The health insurance, ACA, is going to hammer millions of people in the country, including in red states,” said Sen. Angus King, I-Maine. “To me, that can’t be put off.”

    Republicans have said the tax credit issue can be dealt with later this year. They’re also using Schumer’s previous arguments against shutdowns to make the case he’s playing politics.

    “Democrats voted in favor of clean CRs no fewer than 13 times during the Biden administration,” Thune said. “Yet now that Republicans are offering a clean CR, it’s somehow a no go. It’s funny how that happens.”

    [ad_2]

    Jordan Vawter

    Source link

  • Democrats unveil funding alternative to counter GOP in shutdown brawl

    [ad_1]

    Congressional Democrats released bill text Wednesday night for their own stopgap spending proposal as they dig in against a House Republican-backed measure that would fund the government until late November.

    The new Democratic proposal links funding the government through Oct. 31 to two of the party’s other priorities: health care assistance and placing limits on President Donald Trump’s ability to unilaterally roll back funds previously approved by Congress.

    The Democratic stopgap bill has virtually no chance of passing the Senate — much less getting to Trump’s desk before the end-of-the-month deadline to avert a shutdown. But it allows Democrats to rally behind a plan that will win a broad swath of support among their members in the House and Senate.

    “We invite Republican leadership to finally join Democratic leadership at the negotiating table, which they have refused for weeks to do, to prevent a shutdown and begin bipartisan negotiations to keep the government funded,” Congress’ top Democratic appropriators, Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Washington Sen. Patty Murray, said in a joint statement.

    The Democrats’ bill would extend boosted Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies that will otherwise expire on Dec. 31. It also would reverse cuts to Medicaid and other health programs that Republicans enacted as part of their party-line megabill this summer.

    Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer hasn’t explicitly demanded that an extension of the expiring health care subsidies be attached to the stopgap bill, but Democrats also believe Congress can’t wait until the end of the year because Americans will need to make decisions about health insurance before that time.

    The bill contains several mandates for how the Trump administration can spend money, in an attempt to stifle the president’s moves to freeze, shift and cancel funding Congress approves.

    Under the measure, the president would be barred from carrying out his budget request while the government is running on a temporary funding patch. That includes increasing, reducing or eliminating funding unless Congress enacts those changes into law.

    The bill would also hamperTrump’s attempt this month to unilaterally cancel almost $5 billion. The president is planning to withhold the funding through its Sept. 30 expiration, but the bill would extend that date to thwart the cancellation of funding.

    This Democratic alternative comes after House Republicans unveiled their own funding proposal to punt the shutdown deadline to Nov. 21, which they want voted on their chamber floor by Friday. That offer also would include $30 million for lawmaker security and another $58 million in security assistance requested by the White House for the Supreme Court and executive branch.

    But Democrats have bristled over the GOP proposal because Republican leaders are, so far, not negotiating with them. Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries sent two letters to Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson requesting a meeting but said they had been ignored.

    “Donald Trump continues to push for a shutdown by not negotiating with us but are confident when the American people contrast these two proposals they are going to side with us,” Schumer told reporters Wednesday after the Democratic proposal was released.

    Thune opened the door Tuesdayto meeting with Schumer. But Democrats largely brushed off his comments, accusing Republicans of bending to Trump after the president said in a Fox News interview late last week that he didn’t need Democratic support. The Senate will need 60 votes to advance the spending deal, which will necessitate help from Democrats.

    Despite both Senate leaders now claiming they are willing to meet, as of early Wednesday evening nothing was on the books yet.

    Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • House Approves $1.2 Trillion Package Of Spending Bills Before Shutdown Deadline, Senate Up Next – KXL

    House Approves $1.2 Trillion Package Of Spending Bills Before Shutdown Deadline, Senate Up Next – KXL

    [ad_1]

    WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has approved a $1.2 trillion package of spending bills just a few hours before funding for some key federal agencies is set to expire.

    The bill passed Friday by a vote of 286-134.

    The bill now moves to the Senate, where leadership hopes for a final vote later Friday.

    Lawmakers could still miss the midnight deadline for funding the government as action in the Senate could take time.

    But the practical impact in the near term would be minimal.

    With most federal workers off duty over the weekend and many government services funded through earlier legislation, a shutdown would mostly pass without incident unless matters dragged into Monday.

    More about:

    [ad_2]

    Grant McHill

    Source link

  • Congressional leaders announce deal to fund rest of government

    Congressional leaders announce deal to fund rest of government

    [ad_1]

    Congressional leaders on Tuesday formally announced a deal to keep the rest of the government funded through the fiscal year, but with just days to go before a key deadline, members from both parties in the House and Senate will need to cooperate in order to prevent a partial government shutdown.Speaker Mike Johnson announced the deal in a statement, saying he hopes the text of the legislation will be released “as soon as possible,” a key step expected before either chamber votes.A GOP leadership aide told CNN on Monday night that congressional negotiators had reached an agreement on funding for the Department of Homeland Security. At a time when security at the southern border has become a central issue in the 2024 campaign, funding for the agency had become a major obstacle.Congress has until 11:59 p.m. ET Friday to pass the deal, and getting through both chambers is expected to take days. Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, will likely need many Democratic votes to pass the legislation as the far right wing of his conference have been pushing against the bill. And in the Democratic controlled Senate, any one member of the narrowly divided chamber can slow down the process, pushing the federal government passed its deadline.“House and Senate committees have begun drafting bill text to be prepared for release and consideration by the full House and Senate as soon as possible,” Johnson announced in his statement.Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries added: “In the next few days, upon completion of the drafting process, Congress will review and consider the appropriations package in order to fund the government and meet the needs of hardworking American taxpayers.”The leaders of the Senate, Democrat Chuck Schumer and Republican Mitch McConnell, also released statements regarding the agreement.In his own statement, President Joe Biden welcomed news of the deal.“We have come to an agreement with Congressional leaders on a path forward for the remaining full-year funding bills,” Biden wrote. “The House and Senate are now working to finalize a package that can quickly be brought to the floor, and I will sign it immediately.”

    WASHINGTON —

    Congressional leaders on Tuesday formally announced a deal to keep the rest of the government funded through the fiscal year, but with just days to go before a key deadline, members from both parties in the House and Senate will need to cooperate in order to prevent a partial government shutdown.

    Speaker Mike Johnson announced the deal in a statement, saying he hopes the text of the legislation will be released “as soon as possible,” a key step expected before either chamber votes.

    A GOP leadership aide told CNN on Monday night that congressional negotiators had reached an agreement on funding for the Department of Homeland Security. At a time when security at the southern border has become a central issue in the 2024 campaign, funding for the agency had become a major obstacle.

    Congress has until 11:59 p.m. ET Friday to pass the deal, and getting through both chambers is expected to take days. Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, will likely need many Democratic votes to pass the legislation as the far right wing of his conference have been pushing against the bill. And in the Democratic controlled Senate, any one member of the narrowly divided chamber can slow down the process, pushing the federal government passed its deadline.

    “House and Senate committees have begun drafting bill text to be prepared for release and consideration by the full House and Senate as soon as possible,” Johnson announced in his statement.

    Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries added: “In the next few days, upon completion of the drafting process, Congress will review and consider the appropriations package in order to fund the government and meet the needs of hardworking American taxpayers.”

    The leaders of the Senate, Democrat Chuck Schumer and Republican Mitch McConnell, also released statements regarding the agreement.

    In his own statement, President Joe Biden welcomed news of the deal.

    “We have come to an agreement with Congressional leaders on a path forward for the remaining full-year funding bills,” Biden wrote. “The House and Senate are now working to finalize a package that can quickly be brought to the floor, and I will sign it immediately.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Kevin McCarthy Finally Defies the Right

    Kevin McCarthy Finally Defies the Right

    [ad_1]

    The speaker made a last-minute reversal to avert a government shutdown. It could cost him his job.

    Anna Moneymaker / Getty

    Updated at 9:02 p.m. ET on September 30, 2023

    For weeks, Speaker Kevin McCarthy seemed to face an impossible choice as he haggled over spending bills with his party’s most hard-line members: He could keep the government open, or he could keep his job. At every turn, McCarthy’s behavior suggested that he favored the latter option. He continued accepting the demands of far-right Republicans to deepen spending cuts and dig in against the Democrats, making a shutdown at tonight’s midnight deadline all but a certainty.

    Read: Why Republicans can’t keep the government open

    With just hours to go, however, the speaker abruptly changed course, defying his conservative tormentors and partnering with Democrats to avert a shutdown. The House this afternoon overwhelmingly approved a temporary extension of federal funding. The Senate passed the bill in the evening, putting off a shutdown for at least 45 days and buying both parties more time to negotiate spending for the next fiscal year.

    The question now is whether McCarthy’s pivot will end his nine-month tenure as speaker. By folding—for now—on the shutdown fight, he is effectively daring Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida and other hard-line Republicans to make good on their threats to depose him. “If somebody wants to remove [me] because I want to be the adult in the room, go ahead and try,” McCarthy told reporters before the vote. “But I think this country is too important.”

    The stopgap bill includes disaster-relief money sought by both parties, but McCarthy refused to add $6 billion in Ukraine aid that the Biden administration and a bipartisan majority of senators wanted. The Senate had been on the verge of passing its own extension that included the Ukraine money, but after the House vote it was expected to accept McCarthy’s proposal instead. Whether House Republicans agree to include Ukraine assistance in the next major spending bill is unclear, but Democrats and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell are likely to make an aggressive push for it.

    McCarthy’s surprising about-face set off a wild few hours in the Capitol. Democrats were caught off guard and stalled for time to read the new bill, unsure if Republicans were trying to sneak conservative policy priorities into the legislation without anyone noticing. (In the end, only a single Democrat voted against it.) Representative Jamaal Bowman of New York, a second-term Democrat, caused the evacuation of an entire House office building when he pulled a fire alarm just before the vote, in what Republicans said was a deliberate—and possibly criminal—effort to delay the proceedings. (Bowman’s chief of staff said that the representative “did not realize he would trigger a building alarm as he was rushing to make an urgent vote. The Congressman regrets any confusion.”)

    Annie Lowrey: How to end government shutdowns, forever

    On the right, the criticism of McCarthy was predictable and immediate. “Should he remain Speaker of the House?” one of his Republican opponents, Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona, tweeted after the vote, seemingly rhetorically. Yet to more moderate Republicans, the speaker’s decision was a long time coming. McCarthy’s months-long kowtowing to the right had frustrated more pragmatic and politically vulnerable House Republicans, a few of whom threatened to join Democratic efforts to avert, or end, a shutdown. But many Republicans are even more furious at Gaetz and his allies. “Why live in fear of these guys? If they want to have the fight, have the fight,” former Representative Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, a moderate who served in the House with McCarthy for 12 years, told me. “I don’t understand why you would appease people who are doing nothing but trying to hurt and humiliate you.”

    This morning, the speaker finally came to the same conclusion. His move to relent on a shutdown only kicks the stalemate over federal spending to another day. Now it’s up to House Republicans to decide if McCarthy gets to stick around to resolve it.

    [ad_2]

    Russell Berman

    Source link

  • Government shutdown looms: Here’s how to help preserve your investment portfolio.  

    Government shutdown looms: Here’s how to help preserve your investment portfolio.  

    [ad_1]

    “ The economic impact of a shutdown and the potential implications on your portfolio depend largely on how long the shutdown lasts. ”

    The potential for a U.S. government shutdown can raise alarm for investors and send the phone of a financial adviser like me ringing off the hook. Headlines in front of them, my clients are increasingly asking about potential portfolio implications and how they should respond.

    There is certainly a measured response, which includes not overreacting to the headlines and sticking to your long-term investment plan, and I’ll show you how to draw it.

    Government shutdown explained

    First, it’s important to understand what is happening. During a shutdown, the federal government will suspend all services that are deemed nonessential until a funding agreement is reached. This is much different than a default — which can happen when the government can’t pay its debts or satisfy its obligations. A default can have significant ramifications on U.S. creditworthiness and in turn, the global financial system. You may recall lawmakers’ discussions earlier this year regarding raising the debt ceiling — a solution to avoid defaulting. 

    A U.S. default has never happened, but shutdowns have occurred more than 20 times since 1976. Unlike a default, a shutdown does not affect the government’s ability to pay its obligations, and many critical government services, like Social Security may continue. When weighing the two, one can presume that markets may react more negatively to a default.   

    Markets may experience heightened volatility in response to the shutdown uncertainty, but markets do not react consistently to the news. In the past we have seen U.S. stocks — as measured by the S&P 500
    SPX
    — finish positively after more than half of these shutdowns. Results are similar for fixed-income securities, as we’ve seen an even split between positive and negative returns in the bond markets in shutdowns since 1976. 

    Of course, all investing is subject to risk, past performance is not a guarantee for future returns, and the performance of an index is not an exact representation of any particular investment. 

    The economic impact of a shutdown — and the potential implications on your portfolio — depend largely on how long the shutdown lasts. The longer the shutdown, the more Americans experience dampened economic activity from things like loss of furloughed federal workers’ contribution to GDP, the delay in federal spending on goods and services, and the reduction in aggregate demand (which lowers private-sector activity). 

    Read: Government shutdown: Analysts warn of ‘perhaps a long one lasting into the winter’

    A measured response 

    A government shutdown is just one of many factors, both positive and negative, that can cause fluctuation in the market, so it’s important to treat it just as you would other fluctuations.

    With so many variables, it’s impossible to precisely predict the effects the shutdown will have or determine how long it will last. This can seem scary for many, so it’s important to remember your long-term financial plan and focus on the factors you can control.  

    First, do not try to time the market. Doing so based on short-term events is never a good idea, and volatility is unpredictable. Even if the markets fall, we don’t know when they might recover. If you make an emotionally charged decision, you run the risk of missing out on potentially substantial market gains. 

    Instead, focus on the following: align your asset allocation with your risk tolerance; control your costs; adopt realistic expectations; hold a broadly diversified portfolio and stay disciplined. Doing so can help you weather any form of market uncertainty, including a shutdown.

    Stick to healthy financial habits

    In addition to not making any sudden moves in your investment portfolio, now is a suitable time to make sure you are keeping up with healthy financial habits, especially if you are a federal employee facing a furlough. This can look like readjusting your budget based on your current needs, keeping high-interest debt to a minimum, paying the minimum on all debt to keep your credit score in good standing and continuing to save.

    Remember, using your emergency fund to navigate tight times is exactly what you have saved for and tapping it in this instance is considered a healthy financial habit. Just be sure to replenish it when you have the funds to do so. As a good practice, Vanguard recommends having three- to six months of expenses saved in readily accessible investments.

    With a level, long-term approach and a personalized financial plan, you can be prepared for this potential storm and the inevitable ones to come. 

    Lauren Wybar is a senior financial adviser with Vanguard Personal Advisor. 

    More: Bill Ackman says Treasury yields are going higher in a hurry, and that investors should shun U.S. government debt

    Plus: Social Security checks will still come if there’s a shutdown. But there are other immediate threats to America’s benefits.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • NY Republican eyes voting with Democrats to avert government shutdown

    NY Republican eyes voting with Democrats to avert government shutdown

    [ad_1]

    New York Rep. Mike Lawler has joined a group of fellow moderate Republicans who say they may vote with Democrats to avert a government shutdown if House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is unable to pass a stopgap spending bill.

    With a possible shutdown looming this weekend, Lawler is one of four Republicans who says he would consider working across the aisle with Democrats if that is the only feasible way to keep the government open.

    Lawler, who faces a tricky reelection fight in his Democratic-leaning district in Westchester County, says he could vote with Democrats to bring a short-term funding bill to the House floor if the only alternative is a shutdown.

    Rep. Marc Molinaro, a fellow first-term Republican who represents a swing district stretching from the Catskills further upstate, also says it is “absolutely an option” to team up with Democrats to keep the government open.

    Rep. Don Bacon (R-Nebraska) and Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Pennsylvania) also expressed openness to the tactic after enduring two weeks of fruitless negotiations with GOP hardliners.

    No few than five Republicans would likely need to break ranks with the party to pass the discharge petition in the nearly evenly divided House.

    The crucial fifth GOP vote could be Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, another first-term Republican from a Long Island district President Biden won in 2020.

    D’Esposito has said he was “very frustrated” with Republicans who have so far blocked passage of a stopgap spending bill. He did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday on whether he would consider voting with Democrats.

    Lawler last week derided members of the far right-wing Freedom Caucus as “lunatics” and a “clown show” who don’t really want to pass any government spending bill.

    Bacon, who is also facing a tough fight to hold onto his blue-leaning Omaha district, said some far right Republicans would “vote against the Bible because there’s not enough Jesus in it.”

    McCarthy says he still believes he can push through a spending bill with only the support of Republicans.

    AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

    House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., talks to reporters as Congress returns to work in crisis with a few days to go before a government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023. McCarthy faces an insurgency from hard-right Republicans eager to slash spending even if it means closing federal offices to millions of Americans.

    Such a bill would need to include deep spending cuts and a grab bag of MAGA priorities to make it acceptable to almost all the far right-wing members of his caucus.

    If McCarthy succeeds in jamming such a measure through the House, it would likely hit a brick wall in the Senate where Democrats and Republicans mostly agree on the need for a so-called clean continuing resolution that would keep spending levels flat.

    The two sides would then try to hash out a compromise that could avert a shutdown before Sunday.

    Lawler portrays himself as a can-do bipartisan dealmaker. Analysts say burnishing that image is essential if he is to turn away a challenge from either Democratic ex-Rep. Mondaire Jones or Katonah school board member Elizabeth Geraghty, the sister of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

    [ad_2]

    Dave Goldiner

    Source link

  • Risk of government shutdown soars as House Republicans leave town in disarray amid hard-right revolt

    Risk of government shutdown soars as House Republicans leave town in disarray amid hard-right revolt

    [ad_1]

    WASHINGTON — With House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s latest funding plan in ruins and lawmakers leaving town for the weekend, there’s no endgame in sight as hard-right Republicans push closer to a federal government shutdown.

    The White House will tell federal agencies on Friday to prepare for a shutdown, according to an official with the Office of Management and Budget who insisted on anonymity to discuss the upcoming instructions.

    That’s a standard seven days out from a federal disruption.

    “ ‘This is a whole new concept of individuals who just want to burn the whole place down.’ ”


    — Kevin McCarthy on his intraparty Republican critics

    McCarthy, the Republican speaker whose narrow majority and intraparty detractors meant it took 15 votes in January before he secured the gavel, has repeatedly tried to appease his hard-right flank by agreeing to the steep spending cuts they are demanding to keep government open. But, cheered on by Donald Trump, the former Republican president who is the current frontrunner for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination, the right wingers are flexing their outsize influence.

    In a crushing defeat for McCarthy on Thursday, a handful of Republican hardliners blocked a typically popular defense bill from advancing — the second time this week it was set back, an unheard-of loss for a House speaker.

    Even a stopgap bill to keep government funding past the Sept. 30 deadline, called a continuing resolution, or CR, is a nonstarter for some on the right flank who have essentially seized control of the House.

    Read on: How a partial government shutdown would affect you

    “This is a whole new concept of individuals who just want to burn the whole place down,” McCarthy said after Thursday’s vote, acknowledging he was frustrated. “It doesn’t work.”

    The open revolt was further evidence that McCarthy’s strategy of repeatedly giving in to the conservatives — in evidence as early as January when McCarthy is believed to have made undisclosed concessions to secure holdout GOP votes for his long-desired speakership — is seemingly only emboldening them, allowing them to run roughshod over their own House majority. Their far-right bills have almost no chances in the Senate.

    See: Gaetz threatens to oust McCarthy from House speaker post

    Trump urged the hardliners to hold the line against the higher funding levels McCarthy had agreed to with President Joe Biden earlier this year and to end the federal criminal indictments against him.

    “This is also the last chance to defund these political prosecutions against me and other Patriots,” Trump wrote on social media.

    “They failed on the debt limit, but they must not fail now. Use the power of the purse and defend the Country!” the former president wrote.

    The White House and Democrats, along with some Republicans, warn that a shutdown would be devastating for people who rely on their government for everyday services and would undermine America’s standing in the world.

    Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, observed Friday on the MSNBC program “Morning Joe” that investigations into, and prosecutions of, Trump are funded by continuing, indefinite appropriations and thus would be unaffected by a federal government shutdown.

    Also see: Government shutdown: Analysts warn of ‘perhaps a long one lasting into the winter’

    Raskin went on to voice a hope that Republicans ultimately would honor the government-funding agreement McCarthy struck in May with the Biden White House — but conceded Democrats are aware operating in a bipartisan fashion could cost McCarthy the speakership.

    “We need the extreme MAGA Republicans to get their act together,” said House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

    “End the civil war,” Jeffries urged the Republicans. “Get your act together.”

    But one of Trump’s top allies, Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, who is leading the hard-right flank in the current skirmish, said the House Republicans now have almost no choices left but to spend the time it takes to pass each of the 12 spending bills needed to fund the government — typically a laborious process — even if it means going into a shutdown.

    Or they can join with Democrats to pass a CR, putting McCarthy at risk.

    What Gaetz said he, and several others, would not do is vote for a continuing resolution that fails to slash spending. “I’m giving a eulogy for the CR right now,” Gaetz told reporters after a late afternoon meeting Thursday at the Capitol.

    “I represent Florida’s First Congressional District, where, during the shutdown, tens of thousands of people will go without a paycheck, and so I know the impact of a shutdown,” Gaetz said. “So it may get worse before it gets better, and I have little to offer but blood, sweat, toil and tears, but that may be what it takes.”

    A government closure is increasingly likely as time runs out for Congress to act.

    McCarthy’s bid to move ahead with a traditionally popular defense funding bill as a first step toward keeping the government running was shattered, on a vote of 216-212. Five Republicans refused to vote with the increasingly endangered speaker. A sixth Republican voted no on procedural grounds so the bill could be reconsidered.

    Moving forward with the defense bill was supposed to be a way for McCarthy to build goodwill among the GOP House majority as he tries to pass a temporary measure just to keep government running for another month. It, too, had catered to other hard-right priorities, such as slashing spending by 8% from many services and earmarking further funds for security at the U.S.-Mexico border.

    Many on the right flank opposed the deal McCarthy struck with Biden this year over the spending levels and are trying to dismantle it now. They want to see progress on the individual appropriations bills that would fund the various federal departments at the lower levels these lawmakers are demanding.

    From the archives (May 2023): How Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy got to yes on their debt-ceiling compromise

    The morning test vote on Thursday shattered a McCarthy strategy that had emerged just the night before. Republicans had appeared on track, in a tight roll call, to advancing the measure. Then the Democrats who had not yet voted began rushing into the chamber.

    New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and fellow Democrats yelled out to hold open the vote. She was a “no.” A few others came in behind her and tipped the tally toward defeat.

    The Democrats oppose the military bill on many fronts, including Republican provisions that would gut diversity programs at the Pentagon.

    As passage appeared doomed, attention turned to the five Republican holdouts to switch their votes.

    GOP leaders spent more than an hour on the floor trying to recruit one of them, Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolina, to vote “yes.”

    “Every time there’s the slightest relief of the pressure, the movement goes away from completing the work,” Bishop said.

    When asked what it would take to gain his vote, Bishop said, “I think a schedule of appropriations bills over Kevin McCarthy signature would be meaningful to you, to me.”

    Others were dug in, including some who had supported advancing the defense bill just two days ago when it first failed.

    Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican and a clamorous opponent of more aid for Ukraine in its defense against the unprovoked Russian invasion, said she voted against the defense bill this time because her party’s leadership refused to separate out war money.

    Her stand came as Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, was at the Capitol during a high-profile visit to Washington.

    McCarthy had pledged to keep House lawmakers in session this weekend for as long as it took to finish their work. But they were sent home and told they could be called back on ample notice.

    Many Republicans were starting to speak up more forcefully against their hard-right colleagues.

    Mike Lawler, who represents a swing district in New York carried handily by Joe Biden in 2020, said he would not “be party to a shutdown.”

    “There needs to be a realization that you’re not going to get everything you want,” he said. “Just throwing a temper tantrum and stomping your feet — frankly, not only is it wrong — it’s just pathetic.”

    Lawler had said in an interview with CNN earlier in the week that barreling toward a shutdown was not Republican conservatism but “stupidity.”

    MarketWatch contributed.

    [ad_2]

    Source link