House GOP Drafts Stopgap Spending Bill
Politico reports:
House Republicans plan to pass a two-week stopgap spending bill next week that would keep the government running past March 4 at reduced levels, GOP aides told POLITICO Wednesday.
The measure comes on the heels of last week’s seven-month appropriation bill that would have slashed $61 billion from federal accounts but has no chance of passage in the Senate.
Republican aides say the cuts in the two-week spending bill would be proportional — or pro-rated — to reflect the levels in the first measure. That means cutting about $2 billion over two weeks. The plan is tentative and the contours of the measure are still being crafted.
It’s House Republicans’ opening bid in a war of attrition that pits their promise to slash spending against Senate Democrats’ refusal to allow any cuts on a short-term bill. If no one backs down by March 4, the government will shut down. House Republicans want to leave the hot potato in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s hands.
GOP aides say the goal is to send Reid a bill that he can’t turn down, either because of the threat of a shutdown or because enough of his politically vulnerable Democrats support the Republican-written measure.
Other than issuing a veto threat on the first Republican-written bill, President Barack Obama has kept his distance from a combustible situation that threatens to do damage to anyone standing in the vicinity of a shutdown.
Recognizing the high stakes and the limited time window, House aides acknowledge that the process for considering the two-week funding bill is not likely to allow for amendments — and certainly won’t provide for the kind of free-wheeling debate the House engaged in last week.
That may or may not cause consternation with rank-and-file Republicans, but it will surely bring criticism from Democrats that GOP leaders aren’t living up to the spirit of their promise to give open consideration to legislation.
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