US House to Continue with Spending Cuts, Ignoring Risk of Government Shutdown

The Republican-controlled House is set to attempt to advance significant spending cuts this week that are unlikely to become law and may lead to a partial shutdown of the U.S. government by next Sunday.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., tried to avoid this scenario by reaching a spending agreement with Democrat President Joe Biden earlier this year. However, some members of his own party have threatened to replace him if he does not support deeper cuts that will surely be rejected by the Democrat-controlled Senate.

If Congress does not provide funding for the new fiscal year starting on Oct. 1, hundreds of thousands of federal workers will be furloughed, and various services, including financial oversight and medical research, will be suspended.

Typically, Congress misses this deadline and passes stopgap spending bills to prevent disruption while they complete their work.

Nevertheless, McCarthy has been unable to gather enough support for a temporary spending extension as a group of conservative Republicans have refused to cooperate. Republicans currently hold a narrow majority in the House with 221-212 and have limited votes to spare.

McCarthy has put the stopgap bill on hold and instead plans to advance legislation that reflects conservative priorities.

When the House convenes on Tuesday, lawmakers are expected to consider four spending bills for the upcoming fiscal year. These bills would introduce new restrictions on abortion access, reverse an $11 billion climate initiative by the Biden administration, and resume the construction of the Mexico-U.S. border wall, which was a significant initiative during former President Donald Trump’s term.

These bills are guaranteed to be rejected by the Senate, and the White House has stated that Biden would veto two of them.

McCarthy hopes that this effort will generate goodwill and enable him to pass a stopgap measure to avoid a shutdown.

However, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a prominent critic of McCarthy, stated on Sunday that he would not support a stopgap measure, even if it leads to a shutdown.

“If the departments of Labor and Education have to shut down for a few days as we align their appropriations, that is certainly not an optimal situation. However, I believe it is better than continuing on the current path,” he said.

Another conservative member, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., stated in a release that she would not even support debating the spending bills on the House floor due to the inclusion of aid for Ukraine.

Greene and other members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus have advocated for agency spending cuts amounting to $1.47 trillion, which is $120 billion less than what Biden and McCarthy agreed upon in their compromise in May.

However, this figure only represents a fraction of the overall U.S. budget, which amounts to $6.4 trillion for this fiscal year. Lawmakers are not considering cuts to popular benefit programs such as Social Security and Medicare, which are expected to significantly expand as the population ages.

In the meantime, the Senate is scheduled to advance a stopgap spending measure on Tuesday. If it passes, McCarthy may have to rely on Democratic votes to pass it and avoid a shutdown before Oct. 1. This could provoke the ire of his conservative flank and potentially put his position at risk.

Former President Donald Trump has urged Republicans to trigger a shutdown in order to interfere with his two ongoing federal criminal cases. The Justice Department has stated that criminal prosecutions would continue in the event of a shutdown.