House Speaker Kevin McCarthy speaks with reporters at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday.
Francis Chung/POLITICO
Even if the stopgap spending patch can clear the upper chamber this week, it will do nothing to help McCarthy out of his jam.
Senators’ thinking on the bill evolved quickly over the past few days. Aides in both parties hinted they would craft a simple bill without too many add-ons to see if McCarthy would welcome the chance to take up a simple funding extension as the Sept. 30 deadline neared.
But in the end, the Senate changed course and embraced a strategy aimed at offering antsy lawmakers assurance that disaster and Ukraine assistance programs wouldn’t go entirely unfunded. The White House also made a late and sustained push to include more money for those priorities.
“It’s important for us to go and act. If we can get a good bipartisan vote, it will be an important signal to send to the House. And the speaker will recognize that he should not cater to a small group of extremists,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) said.
McCarthy is already facing the threat of a far-right rebellion, one that would be virtually guaranteed if he put any Senate-negotiated plan on the floor with billions of dollars in Ukraine aid — not to mention a lack of further spending cuts and no border policy changes.
Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio), a senior appropriator who leads the more centrist Republican Governance Group, made clear that he has little interest in a Senate-negotiated stopgap, also known as a continuing resolution or a CR.
“The plan is to get some kind of stopgap funding that includes border security that’s so necessary, to protect us from what the president has allowed to happen on the southern border,” Joyce said.
Instead, the House GOP is expected to pivot back to its own stopgap funding bill, with steep funding cuts and conservative border policy attached.
Monday afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer sold the bill as a shutdown prevention measure, calling it a “bridge” to more work on a more comprehensive spending plan. Immediately afterward, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell endorsed the bill and savaged the alternative: “Government shutdowns are bad news.”
“I’m more optimistic than when I was yesterday or the day before. At least we’ve got a vehicle to work with here,” Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) said.
The House has “got to look at the realities of this,” he added. “What they are trying to do is insert uncertainty in the process and waste money.”
Sen. Rand Paul speaks with reporters as he departs the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday.