Senate leaders announced a potential breakthrough in the government shutdown stalemate Tuesday evening as the House of Representatives remains in paralysis.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) endorsed a bipartisan stopgap spending plan — also known as a continuing resolution, or CR — that would keep the government open until Nov. 17.
Meanwhile, the House was set Tuesday evening to consider four separate appropriations bills — but it was unclear whether Republican leadership had the votes to move them.
“Speaker McCarthy, instead of focusing on bipartisanship, catered to the hard right and has nothing — nothing to show for it,” Schumer chided on the Senate floor. “So this week, the Senate will move forward first.”
“Today’s agreement won’t have everything that both sides want,” he added. “This CR is a bridge, not a final destination.”
The Senate’s CR was expected to fund the government at “present levels” with roughly $4.5 billion worth of Ukraine aid and $6 billion for disaster relief funding tucked into it.
There’s also about $1.65 billion for economic support for Ukraine.
“Shutting the government down over a domestic budget dispute doesn’t strengthen anyone’s political position. It just puts important progress on ice and it leaves millions of Americans on edge,” McConnell said.
In the other chamber, McCarthy was evasive about whether he would take up a Senate CR.
“How many times you’ve asked me a question this week, and it’s the exact same question. It’s always a hypothetical that the Senate is going to do something,” McCarthy scoffed.
Some of the speaker’s Republican renegades have been dangling a motion to oust McCarthy if he moves on Senate spending legislation or otherwise cuts a deal with Democrats.
McCarthy has downplayed fears about the bid — known as a motion to vacate — insisting he won’t resign, and has stressed that he is pushing for the most conservative solution possible.
At the same time, the speaker has been adamant about averting a shutdown.
A CR drafted by House Republicans over the weekend is believed to feature deep cuts of around 27% to non-military and non-veteran discretionary spending from current levels — a non-starter in the Democrat controlled Senate.
McCarthy also seemingly lacks the votes the pass it in the House, since he can only lose four Republicans and pass bills along party lines.
On Tuesday, McCarthy sought to shift the onus onto President Biden.
“I think it’d be very important to have a meeting with the president,” the speaker told reporters. “The president could keep government open by doing something on the border.”
“Democrats across the nation are telling the President to do something about the border,” McCarthy declared. “I think that’s the appropriate way to be able to keep government funded.”
“The president can no longer ignore what’s happening on the border.”
The White House has largely stayed out of the dealmaking, urging Republicans to stick to the top-line figures from the debt limit fight earlier this year
“This is something for House Republicans to deal with. It is their job. It is one of their basic duties to keep the government open. It truly is,” White House press secretary Jean-Pierre said last week.
To fully fund the government for the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, Congress is planning to use the regular appropriations process.
McCarthy has committed to passing 12 individual spending bills, but he lower chamber has only passed one so far — for military construction and veterans affairs — while the Senate hasn’t approved any.
Under pressure from hard-right Republicans like Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), McCarthy will move forward Tuesday with bills to fund the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Agriculture, and State.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is already a “hard no” on an initial test vote for the four bills due to Ukraine funding. It is unclear how many holdouts GOP leadership will manage to win over.
If all four clear the House, then the lower chamber will have approved about 72% of discretionary spending for fiscal year 2024, according to McCarthy.
But the baseline discretionary spending levels will come in below the $1.59 trillion agreed upon during the debt ceiling flap back in late May.
This puts the House at odds with the Senate, which has stuck to those initial figures.
A partial shutdown would begin at 11:59 p.m. Sept. 30.