An American flag on the U.S. Capitol Constructing is seen in Washington, August 31, 2023.
Kevin Wurm | Reuters
A deeply divided Congress returned Tuesday from a monthlong summer vacation with the clock ticking to pass spending laws to avoid a government shutdown and boost U.S. emergency response funding following multiple natural disasters.
The U.S. government will shut down at midnight on Sept. 30 if Congress fails to pass spending laws. While the Senate is back in session Tuesday, the House won’t return to work until Sept. 12, leaving nearly three weeks to pass funding before the deadline.
The White House on Thursday asked Congress to pass a single short-term measure, called a unbroken resolution, to fund the federal government at current levels and avoid a shutdown while negotiations proceed over a dozen long-term funding bills.
The leaders of each chambers agree that a short-term measure is the most effective approach to avoid a government shutdown. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, said in August that he and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., agreed that Congress should pass a unbroken resolution to increase funding at existing levels for a couple of months.
The continuing resolution is a stopgap measure that might arrange for a possible shutdown at a later date if Congress cannot within the interim pass the longer-term spending bills. The Republican-led House of Representatives has only passed considered one of a dozen bills needed to fund the federal government through 2024.
McCarthy got here out publicly in support of a unbroken resolution to maintain the federal government running during an interview with Fox News last month. He sought to persuade House Republicans into supporting the measure with a warning that investigations into the Biden administration would grind to a halt if the federal government shuts down.
“If we shut down, all of presidency shuts it down, investigations and every thing else. It hurts the American public,” McCarthy told Fox News.
But far-right members of the House GOP are pushing back against McCarthy. The House Freedom Caucus is attempting to tie government funding to laws that might crack down on undocumented immigration and restart construction of the border wall.
And Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., told constituents during a town hall last Thursday that she wouldn’t vote to fund the federal government unless the House votes to open an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
Bank of America analysts in a note Tuesday put the probabilities of shutdown as a flip of the coin given the conditions conservative Republicans are putting on funding laws. If a shutdown does occur, it would have a minimal impact on financial markets, UBS analysts said in a note Tuesday.
Bank of America believes a shutdown is unlikely to last long if it does occur given the potential political consequences for the GOP and the added pressure to fund the federal government given the devastating wildfires in Maui, Hawaii, and the destruction from Hurricane Idalia in Florida and the Southeast last week.
FEMA disaster funding
The battle over funding the U.S. government comes because the Federal Emergency Management Agency is running low on money with hurricane season kicking into high gear this month.
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said last week that a shutdown wouldn’t affect operations which can be addressing the immediate needs of the victims of Maui wildfires, Hurricane Idalia and other disasters within the near future.
But FEMA expects to make use of up the $3.4 billion left in its disaster relief fund and run a deficit by the center of the month within the absence of additional money. The Biden administration has called on Congress to pass separate funding that features a total of $16 billion to bolster the fund.
“We want this money done. We want this disaster relief request met and we want to do it in September — we will not wait,” Biden told FEMA personnel during a visit to the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., last week.
The administration’s request to spice up the relief fund could also run into Republican opposition to U.S. military aid for Ukraine. The White House linked the disaster money to a request for greater than $20 billion to back Kyiv during its counteroffensive against the Russian invasion.
Florida Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, each Republicans, have called for Congress to think about the disaster funding and Ukraine aid individually. Scott vowed to introduce a bill to replenish FEMA’s disaster fund with $12.5 billion and push for a right away vote when the Senate returns from summer vacation
Scott accused the Biden administration of “playing games” by tying the FEMA funding to assist for Ukraine. Rubio told Fox News, “Irrespective of how anybody feels about Ukraine funding those two things should never be one for the opposite.”
