


President Joe Biden will likely not sign any continuing resolution from House Republicans given the bipartisan effort in the Senate to fund the government through the full appropriations process, White House officials say.
Furthermore, the White House is seeking to undercut support among centrist House Republicans for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) attempts to stitch together a continuing resolution ahead of the government funding deadline at the end of the month.
WITH NO CLEAR PATH TO AVOID A SHUTDOWN, HOUSE REPUBLICANS' INTERNAL TENSIONS SPEW INTO THE PUBLIC
White House officials say that McCarthy's "Republican only" legislation breaks the spending truce brokered by the president and the speaker this summer by setting spending levels below the agreement that came out of the debt ceiling showdown.
Those officials believe that centrist Republican lawmakers aren't fully aware of how McCarthy's "partisan games" will result in longer-term funding cuts, including to programs the GOP and conservative voters support.
White House officials distributed a fact sheet to interested parties Tuesday afternoon that outlined those potential impacts, some of which could include:
"The continuing resolution they introduced this week makes indiscriminate cuts to programs that millions of hardworking Americans count on — violating the agreement the Speaker negotiated with President Biden and rejecting the bipartisan approach of the Senate," the fact sheet reads. "House Republicans have made clear that these cuts are designed to force longer-term cuts, in-line with their extreme and damaging appropriations bills."
White House officials additionally highlighted McCarthy's inability to coalesce the most conservative wing of the caucus around any singular spending proposal.
McCarthy suspended action on the continuing resolution Tuesday afternoon until later in the week following an all-conference meeting that morning.
Earlier in the day, the White House also criticized House Republicans for prioritizing impeachment hearings of Biden ahead of the looming shutdown deadline.
"Staging a political stunt hearing in the waning days before they may shut down the government reveals their true priorities: To them, baseless personal attacks on President Biden are more important than preventing a government shutdown and the pain it would inflict on American families," White House spokesman Ian Sams wrote in a statement. "Their shutdown would hurt our economy and national security, furlough thousands of federal workers, and jeopardize everything from troop pay to disaster relief to efforts to fight fentanyl. They are clearly hoping they can use their baseless, evidence-free impeachment stunt to try to divert attention away from the consequences of their extreme agenda, including their current funding proposal to slash tens of thousands of preschool slots nationwide and eliminate thousands of law enforcement jobs."
"The President has been very clear: He is going to remain focused on the issues that matter to the American people, including preventing the devastating and harmful cuts proposed by House Republicans that are hurtling us toward a government shutdown," he added. "House Republicans should drop these silly political Washington games and actually do their job to prevent a government shutdown."
Meanwhile, the Senate is slowly moving forward with its own attempts to fund the government through the normal appropriations channels, which the White House says the president supports.
All 12 annual spending bills were passed out of committee with bipartisan support earlier in September before Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) invoked Senate Rule XVI, which prohibits senators from expanding the normal scope of appropriations packages, to block Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-WA) and Vice Chairwoman Susan Collins (R-ME) from submitting a "minibus" amendment to the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs bill.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) moved Monday toward suspending Senate rules and allowing the minibus to advance.
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"It’s unfortunate that one member who does not represent the views of most senators prevented us from moving forward last week," Schumer said Monday ahead of a rules vote later this week.
However, Democrats would still require two-thirds support from the full chamber to suspend Rule 16, which Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) admitted is "not an easy thing."