House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday doubled down on demands that Democrats accept border security as part of a stopgap spending bill to avoid a government shutdown this weekend.
He said President Biden should come to the negotiating table to talk about Republicans’ plans to shut down the border and keep the government open, not vice versa.
“So why am I asking the president to sit down? Because the Senate has not done their job,” said Mr. McCarthy, California Republican. “The Senate has not taken up the House’s work, so no, the president should step in and do something about it. Otherwise, the government will shut down.”
Congress has until midnight Saturday to pass a stopgap spending bill to prevent a partial government shutdown. The Democrat-run Senate has leapfrogged the House in getting a bill on the floor, but Mr. McCarthy has signaled that he won’t take up that bill in the House.
The speaker promised to bring the House’s stopgap legislation to a vote on Friday.
The House and Senate stopgap bills are wildly different and both are dead on arrival in the opposing chambers. The standoff all but cements a partial government shutdown at the stroke of midnight on Saturday.
Mr. McCarthy blamed the impasse on the Senate and the White House because they won’t support the Secure the Border Act, which the House passed in May.
However, House Republicans have yet to land on a unified vision for a stopgap bill. So far, lawmakers have produced three different options and Mr. McCarthy is struggling to wrangle at least seven holdout votes from arch-conservatives who say will never support a short-term spending bill.
Mr. McCarthy wants to bring a stopgap bill that slashes spending to $1.471 trillion for its 30-day duration, includes most of the Secure the Border Act and creates a debt commission.
The holdouts are unlikely to change their minds.
“My advice is, ‘Buckle up, there’s turbulence ahead,’” said Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee, one of the holdouts.
The Senate’s temporary spending bill, which garnered overwhelming bipartisan support in a test vote, is starkly different from the House’s bills.
Rep. Byron Donalds, Florida Republican, helped to negotiate the first stopgap floated in the House. He said that the Senate’s bill was a “nonstarter.”
“It’s dead over here, are you kidding me,” Mr. Donalds said. “First of all, you continue spending, you have $6.2 billion for Ukraine. They do nothing to secure our southern border. That is just a nonstarter. The Senate needs to get real.”
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer’s bipartisan bill would extend current government funding levels until Nov. 17 and includes over $6 billion in Ukraine aid and disaster funding.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washigtontimes.com.