House Democrats launch multiple efforts to delay vote on GOP’s continuing resolution

House Democrats launched multiple efforts to delay a vote on House GOP’s 45-day continuing resolution Saturday after Republicans pushed their plan to the floor for a vote.

Democrats filed a motion to adjourn the House in an effort to get more time to review the GOP legislation and citing trust issues with their colleagues across the aisle. While the effort failed, Democrats successfully stalled the vote for just under an hour as Democrats reviewed the resolution. During the motion to adjourn, which was voted against by both parties, Democrats voted one-by-one by hand in a bid to stall the vote on the stop-gap bill.

HOUSE TO PUSH 45-DAY CONTINUING RESOLUTION ON FLOOR THAT EXCLUDES UKRAINE FUNDING

After the motion to adjourn failed, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) began speaking on the House floor to buy more time as well.

“Strap in; this could take a while,” Jeffries said as he began speaking.

Jeffries used the so-called “magic minute,” which allows the leader of a party to speak on the House floor for as long as they please. Other members of the chamber are limited in their time when addressing the House.

The stalling efforts come as Democrats review the proposed stop-gap bill, saying they have “serious trust issues” with Republicans.

“We have serious trust issues. So at this time, I’m making a motion to adjourn,” House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA) said on the House floor.

“Our members are of the view that nothing that Republicans have said this year is trustworthy. Nothing,” he said. “So the notion that we’re supposed to go to the floor based on the Republicans’ word that this is a clean continuing resolution when they’ve lied every single step of the way,” Jeffries said before calling an emergency meeting of House Democratic leadership during the vote on the motion to adjourn.

The stop-gap bill would be for 45 days and does not have funding for Ukraine but does include disaster relief funds. The bill needs a two-thirds vote of the House to pass it because it is being voted on suspension.

Some Republicans, including Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Bob Good (R-VA), and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), have indicated they will not support the stop-gap bill, meaning GOP leadership will likely need strong Democratic support to pass the bill.

Rep. Annie Kuster (D-NH) said that Democrats want to wait until the Senate votes on its stop-gap proposal to see if it passes through the upper chamber, saying if that bill passes and then comes to the House later on Saturday, they would still be able to avoid a government shutdown. She says if they go with the House’s continuing resolution, it would take time to go through the Senate and would likely be unable to avoid a shutdown.

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If a continuing resolution is not agreed to before Oct. 1, then the government will shut down, and hundreds of thousands of federal workers will be furloughed or have to work without pay. The government has not shut down since the December 2018 shutdown, which lasted 35 days, ending in January 2019.

A government shutdown would see many federal agencies closed down, with the exception of essential services for the federal government. Those still required to work would do so without pay until the government reopens. Congress would still receive its pay during the shutdown because it is constitutionally mandated.