U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., speaks with reporters as he walks to the House floor on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2023.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
The House of Representatives canceled a scheduled key procedural vote Tuesday on a brief government funding bill hashed out by Republicans.
The House GOP leadership pulled a vote originally scheduled for two:30 p.m. ET to advance a stopgap measure to fund the federal government through Oct. 31, in keeping with an updated legislative schedule published by Democratic Whip Katherine Clark.
The U.S. faces a government shutdown if Congress fails to pass a brief funding measure by midnight Sept. 30.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., supports a brief funding measure to maintain the federal government running. But he has faced opposition from hard-right members of the GOP.
Key Republican factions within the House reached a tentative deal Sunday to avoid a shutdown by pairing temporary funding with spending cuts and a border security measure backed by the hard right.
But some members of the GOP still opposed the spending measure after a conference meeting Tuesday.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said he would do every part he can to “assemble a coalition to defeat” the measure, called a seamless resolution.
“We are going to likely should endure some extent of a shutdown,” said Gaetz, who desires to pass separate appropriation bills to fund government agencies moderately than a single temporary measure.
Even when the continuing resolution had been approved Tuesday, it had no likelihood of winning passage within the Senate, where Democrats hold the bulk.
The House has just six days left in session before the Sept. 30 deadline.
