Republicans appeal to far-right conservatives to avert US govt shutdown

WASHINGTON: With just a week before Washington runs out of money to keep the federal government fully operating, warring factions within the Republican Party in the US Congress on Sunday showed no signs of coming together to pass a stopgap funding bill.

Congress so far has failed to finish any of the 12 regular spending bills to fund federal agency programs in the fiscal year starting on Oct. 1.

House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy will push an ambitious plan this week to win approval of four large bills, including military and homeland security funding, that he hopes would demonstrate enough progress to far-right Republicans to win their support for a stop-gap spending bill, known as a continuing resolution, or CR, as well.

Republican Representative Michael McCaul, a 19-year veteran of Congress who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, urged the group of party “holdouts” to stop blocking Republican-backed spending bills while at the same time “saying don’t bring bipartisan bills to the floor.”

“Republicans need to vote for Republican bills” to avert a shutdown, McCaul said on ABC’s “This Week” broadcast.

But some of those “holdouts,” who want deep spending cuts that go beyond a deal passed earlier this year, showed no sign of relenting.

“Continuing resolutions don’t solve the problem. They just kick the can down the road,” Republican Representative Tony Gonzalez told CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”

In June, President Joe Biden signed into law an increase in US borrowing authority that he brokered with McCarthy, which also came with around $1.5 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years. Ultra-right House Republicans want to go further with around $120 billion in additional cuts just for the new fiscal year, which could hit programs ranging from education and environmental protection to Internal Revenue Service enforcement and medical research.