Government shutdown: Schumer blames McCarthy for making shutdown ‘far more likely’
September 28, 2023 03:48 PM
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) blasted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) from the Senate floor Thursday, blaming the conservative leader for supposedly making a government shutdown “far more likely.”
Schumer accused McCarthy of going back on his word on spending limits he agreed to with President Joe Biden over the summer in order to raise the debt ceiling and avoid a shutdown.
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“Remember, bipartisan majorities agreed to funding levels back in June. The leaders of the House, the Senate, the White House, we all shook hands on this deal, but now the speaker, and only the speaker, is going back on his word,” Schumer said.
“As a result, Speaker McCarthy has made a shutdown far more likely. Despite the fact that here in the Senate we’re pursuing bipartisanship, the speaker has chosen to elevate the whims and desires of a handful of hard-right extremists and has nothing to show for it.”
The comment comes after McCarthy stripped funding for Ukraine from a major defense resolution, despite having support from a majority of lawmakers. McCarthy has had to carefully balance appeasing the handful of members from the House Freedom Caucus or risk losing the speakership and reaching deals that would be successfully passed through both chambers.
“Speaker McCarthy is letting a small band of very extreme members override the views of everyone else,” Schumer said. “If we’re forced to abandon Ukraine by a handful of extreme people who seem to have no sense of the reality of the world, we will pay a price for years to come.”
Congress is currently deadlocked on the fight to avoid a government shutdown that would go into effect Sunday, and House Republicans have been at odds since the summer, with a handful of holdouts refusing to send more aid to Ukraine while there is an immigration crisis at the U.S. southern border.
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The Senate recently passed a bipartisan continuing resolution that would fund the government through Nov. 17, 2023, if passed by the House. The current resolution does not include any changes to the border, but amendments to include the border are being negotiated.
Despite the criticism, McCarthy expressed hope on Thursday that both chambers would “get the job done” and avoid the shutdown.