Government shutdown looms closer as US House Republicans again block own spending bill

NEW DELHI: US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's latest effort to jumpstart his stalled spending agenda faced another setback on Thursday when, for the third time, Republicans blocked a procedural vote on defense spending. This development increases the risk of a government shutdown looming just 10 days away.

In a vote, the House of Representatives rejected, with a tally of 216-212, the initiation of debates on an $886 billion defense appropriations bill. This rejection stemmed from opposition coming from a small faction of staunch conservative Republicans.

This outcome marked a setback for McCarthy, occurring the morning after a contentious 221-212 majority meeting that lasted 2.5 hours, seeking common ground on legislation to prevent the fourth government shutdown in a decade, scheduled to commence on October 1.

In response to the failed vote, McCarthy expressed his determination to stick with the strategy he has held since January: persistently working without giving up.

Without Congressional action in the form of either a short-term continuing resolution (CR) or a full-year funding bill, federal agencies will begin shutting down on October 1. So far, House Republicans have been unable to coalesce around either option, and their proposed ideas have received only Republican support, making them unlikely to gain approval in the Democratic-controlled Senate or be signed into law by President Joe Biden.

Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer criticized Speaker McCarthy for increasing the likelihood of a shutdown by wasting time on proposals that cannot become law in the Senate.


Originally scheduled as a five-minute vote, Republicans kept the motion open for over half an hour in the hope of securing additional votes, but to no avail.

Republican Representative Keith Self, who had initially supported advancing the bill, attributed the motion's failure to a lack of trust in McCarthy's leadership.

The situation was marked by heightened emotions within the chamber.

Adding to McCarthy's challenges, former President Donald Trump, the leading contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, called for a government shutdown, echoing a tactic employed three times during his tenure in the White House. Trump's message was delivered via his Truth Social platform, where he also voiced grievances about the current administration.

This political brinkmanship has caught the attention of Wall Street, with rating agency Fitch pointing to repeated last-minute negotiations that endanger the government's ability to meet its financial obligations. Fitch downgraded the US debt rating from AAA to AA+ earlier in the year due to this unpredictability.

Representative Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House appropriations panel, lamented how this uncertainty hindered the government's ability to address the needs of the American people.

The Republican spending agenda has encountered resistance from a small group of conservative Republicans who seek assurances that fiscal 2024 appropriations will not exceed the 2022 top-line figure of $1.47 trillion, which is $120 billion less than what McCarthy and Biden agreed upon in May.


A bipartisan group known as the "Problem Solvers Caucus," consisting of 64 lawmakers, proposed a measure to fund the government until January 11. However, its advancement remains uncertain without McCarthy's support.

Earlier this week, McCarthy had to withdraw a procedural vote on a proposed 30-day CR, and a vote to commence floor debate on the defense appropriations bill also failed. The defense bill had previously faced delays earlier in the month.

McCarthy's latest proposal is a 30-day CR that would reduce spending to the 2022 level, with provisions for addressing federal debt and implementing conservative immigration and border restrictions. Additionally, the proposal sets a top-line figure for full-year fiscal 2024 spending at just under $1.53 trillion, which is $60 billion less than the May agreement with Biden.

The level of support within House Republicans for either the CR or the 2024 spending top line remains uncertain.