Government Funding: ‘Put on Your Seatbelts, the Next Few Days There Are Going to Be Turbulence’
Skepticism of speaker's "laddered" approach to avoiding a federal shutdown is voiced
The next several days will put to the test the ability of House Speaker Mike Johnson and the rest of the House Republicans as a divided Congress tries to pull together legislation to fund the federal government and avoid a government shutdown.
Lawmakers have just a few days before the current stopgap funding plan expires on Friday in order to approve further funding. Otherwise the federal government will close most of its services.
Johnson, an obscure Louisiana Republican his surprise elevation last month to lead the House, is pushing a so-called “laddered” continuing resolution (CR) which would result in some funding running out in mid-January and the rest running out in early February.
Johnson is supporting this untested approach to federal funding in order to satisfy the demands of the other far-right, MAGA members of his party.
A variety of lawmakers and political observers are skeptical of the approach, however.
“Really, the speaker has acknowledged on a call that the Republican Conference just had about 30 minutes ago that he would more than likely need Democratic support in order for this thing to pass. It appears that many Democrats are not going to help him,” said Shermichael Singleton, a political strategist, writer, and commentator who has worked on multiple presidential campaigns. “I think also another issue is that even if they were to somehow get this temporary CR passed into January with the hope of a secondary CR in February, [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell appears to be in agreement with Majority Leader [Chuck] Schumer that without aid to Ukraine, as well as aid to Israel, it is dead on arrival in the Senate.
“So even if he was somehow able to get enough Republicans and some support from Democrats to get something more longer, broader passed, you are not going to get the support from even Republicans in the Senate,” he added. “So this is going to be really really challenging for the new speaker.”
Even support among far-right Republicans isn't secure, according to former Republican congressman Carlos Curbelo, of Florida.
“Extreme right-wing Republicans are starting to oppose his plan. And some of the centrist members I’ve already heard from are expressing doubts about setting up multiple cliffs. The last thing the government needs in Washington, D.C., Alicia — the last thing Congress needs — is more cliffs,” Curbelo said during an on-camera appearance on MSNBC. “Some of the conservative members and the House Republican Conference want to use those cliffs as leverage, but we all know how those cliffs end sometimes: Congress ends up falling off those cliffs and government shuts down. So, put on your seatbelts, the next few days there are going to be turbulence."
The only solution will be to approve a so-called “clean” CR to fully fund the government without any provisions built for far-right Republicans, according to Rep Brendan Boyle (D-Pa), a member of the House Budget Committee.
“We all know the way this is going to end. We are going to get a clean CR. The only question is: Will we get it before a government shutdown? Or will we get it some days and weeks into a government shutdown?” Boyle said. “So while I am glad that it seems the newest House Republican plan moves closer in our direction, it is still not all the way there yet. We need a clean CR, let us then finish the job and do the appropriations for the next fiscal year.”
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