Government Shutdown Imminent?

Chatter about a federal government shutdown seems like a yearly tradition.

Stalemate to pass a deal brings us to the edge of the government grinding to a halt every year.

However, last-minute deals always save the day.

Will that happen again this year?

According to reports, Congress is still scattering to pass a stopgap bill to prevent a shutdown.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reportedly lacks the votes to pass the bill and fund the government past midnight Saturday.

CNN reports:

Congress remained on track Friday morning to trigger a government shutdown this weekend, as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy appears to lack the votes to pass a last-ditch stopgap bill to extend government funding beyond Saturday.

With Congress at an impasse, the federal government is scrambling to prepare for a shutdown when government funding runs out at midnight on Saturday.

Facing the most significant challenge to his leadership to date, McCarthy risks provoking a major confrontation with hardline conservatives if he tries to push through a one-month funding extension, as they argue Congress should instead focus on passing full-year spending bills. House GOP leadership is hoping that border security provisions tucked into the temporary measure will force hardliners’ hands.

But even if such a measure were to pass the House, the spending levels and border measures would likely doom it in the Democratic-controlled Senate anyway.

House GOP leaders are uncertain they have the votes to win a key procedural vote Friday morning to take up the stopgap bill, because all Democrats are expected to vote against the rule, and more than four conservative Republicans may vote against it over their opposition to McCarthy’s plans, two GOP sources said. The rule must be adopted to set the parameters for floor debate.

In the U.S. Senate, Rand Paul (R-KY) is giving Congress an ultimatum.

Paul said he will hold up a vote on a stopgap bill if it includes more funding for Ukraine.

“To avoid a government shutdown, I will consent to an expedited vote on a clean CR without Ukraine aid on it. If leadership insists on funding another country’s government at the expense of our own government, all blame rests with their intransigence,” Paul wrote Thursday.

To avoid a government shutdown, I will consent to an expedited vote on a clean CR without Ukraine aid on it. If leadership insists on funding another country’s government at the expense of our own government, all blame rests with their intransigence.

— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) September 28, 2023

Infowars reports:

Last week, Paul slammed the Ukrainian leadership as “corrupt” and blasting the visiting President Zelensky as “begging for more money.”

In the Senate, Paul asked “When will the aid requests end? When will the war end? Can someone explain what victory looks like?”

Paul also noted that Zelensky has cancelled Democracy in the country.

“They’ve cancelled the elections. What kind of democracy has no election?” he noted, adding “next year, Zelensky said he’s not going to have an election because it would be inconvenient during the war and would be expensive.”

He continued, “if you don’t have elections, who in the world will be supporting a country that’s not a democracy? They’ve banned the political parties, they’ve invaded churches, they’ve arrested priests. So, no, it isn’t a democracy. It’s a corrupt regime.”

However, the Pentagon said a U.S. federal government shutdown would not halt funding to Ukraine.