McCarthy doesn’t have the votes to stop a shutdown – CNN

CNN
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Congress remained on track Friday morning to trigger a government shutdown this weekend, as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy appears to lack the votes to pass a last-ditch stopgap bill to extend government funding beyond Saturday.

With Congress at an impasse, the federal government is scrambling to prepare for a shutdown when government funding runs out at midnight on Saturday.

Facing the most significant challenge to his leadership to date, McCarthy risks provoking a major confrontation with hardline conservatives if he tries to push through a one-month funding extension, as they argue Congress should instead focus on passing full-year spending bills. House GOP leadership is hoping that border security provisions tucked into the temporary measure will force hardliners’ hands.

But even if such a measure were to pass the House, the spending levels and border measures would likely doom it in the Democratic-controlled Senate anyway.

House GOP leaders are uncertain they have the votes to win a key procedural vote Friday morning to take up the stopgap bill, because all Democrats are expected to vote against the rule, and more than four conservative Republicans may vote against it over their opposition to McCarthy’s plans, two GOP sources said. The rule must be adopted to set the parameters for floor debate.

Typically, the majority party votes in lockstep to approve the rule, but hardliners in this Congress have repeatedly sank rules in order to gain leverage over McCarthy.

The vote is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. ET. If it’s adopted, the House will vote on final passage of the stopgap bill at 1:15 p.m.

The speaker refused on Thursday to say whether he would try to cut a deal with Democrats if the stopgap measure fails – a step that could prompt conservatives to move to oust him from the speakership.

“I still got time, I got time to do other things,” McCarthy responded when asked by CNN’s Manu Raju what will happen if the stopgap bill fails.

Pressed further on whether he has a plan B, McCarthy said, “In this job you got to have an ABCDEF and G,” and he laughed when asked what letter he was currently on.

“I haven’t spelled my name out completely,” the California Republican said.

A shutdown could have enormous impacts across the country, in consequential areas ranging from air travel to clean drinking water, as many government operations would come to a halt, while services deemed “essential” would continue.

House GOP leaders brought a series of spending bills to the floor Thursday evening as they try to show conservatives they are working in good faith to advance full-year funding bills.

The House passed several of those spending bills, but the measures would not stop a shutdown and have no hope of passing in the Senate.

At the end of the night, a bill to fund the Department of Agriculture failed to pass on the floor with 27 Republicans voting against it, highlighting once again the difficulty Republicans have had coalescing around spending bills.

Meanwhile, the Senate is working to advance a bipartisan stopgap bill that would keep the government open through November 17 and provide additional aid to Ukraine and disaster relief. McCarthy has so far dismissed that bill.

It could take until Monday to pass the Senate’s bill to keep the government open if GOP Sen. Rand Paul slows down the process – as he has vowed to do – over his demand that the bill drop the $6.2 billion in aid to Ukraine it contains, according to senators. That would put it past the Saturday evening shutdown deadline.