With just days to go before the government runs out of money, the Senate has unveiled a bipartisan stopgap bill in a bid to avert a shutdown -- but there's no guarantee that it will be able to pass in the House as a bloc of conservatives rail against the prospect of a short-term funding extension.
The Senate stopgap bill would keep the government funded until November 17 and includes $6.2 billion in Ukraine aid. The addition of Ukraine funding could further exacerbate tensions with the House since many conservative Republicans are opposed to sending further aid to the war-torn country. The bill also includes $6 billion for natural disasters.
Schumer said earlier Tuesday, "We will continue to fund the government at present levels while maintaining our commitment to Ukraine's security and humanitarian needs, while also ensuring those impacted by natural disasters across the country begin to get the resources they need."
But House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters that funding for Ukraine should not be included in a short-term spending package, and instead should be a standalone bill.
"Would it be on the CR? My answer would be no, that should be dealt with in a supplemental," the California Republican said, a reference to a continuing resolution, or CR, which would be a short-term funding patch.
"I don't quite understand when you have all these people across the country talking about the challenges happening in America today, that people would go and say, 'Oh we need to go and do Ukraine and ignore what's happening along our border.' I think that would be the wrong approach," he said.
McCarthy has remained noncommittal on whether he would put a bipartisan Senate-passed stopgap measure to avert a shutdown on the floor this week ahead of the deadline.
Now that the Senate has unveiled its own stopgap measure, the chamber will still need to pass it before it can be sent to the House and any one senator can slow passage under tight time constraints.
McCarthy faces leadership test in the House
Meanwhile, lacking the GOP votes to pass a stopgap bill, McCarthy is turning attention early in the week toward an effort to advance a series of spending bills, including for the departments of Defense and Homeland Security.
Passing those bills won't stop a shutdown at the end of the week, but as conservatives demand the passage of full-year funding bills, McCarthy had been hoping that momentum on the measures might swing enough holdouts to support a Republican stopgap bill. However, it is not clear that even those bills can advance amid deep divisions within the House Republican conference.
McCarthy is expected to face yet another test of his leadership on Tuesday as House GOP leadership has indicated that they plan to hold a procedural vote on a rule to advance those measures. The expected vote comes after hardliners tanked a similar procedural vote for a defense bill last week in a major embarrassment for the House GOP leaders. All eyes will be on the House to see if that spectacle repeats itself.
On Tuesday, McCarthy again slammed the hardliners that bucked the party last week and would not support a procedural motion to move forward. When pressed on if he is confident they will be in line this week, he criticized their efforts as counterproductive. "I don't understand why anybody would block the ability to secure the border, if they want to stand with President Biden by keeping the border open I think that'd be the wrong position."
McCarthy indicated that if the House is able to pass the series of spending bills it has lined up for consideration this week, then he would put a stopgap measure on the floor that includes border provisions.
"If we get through these next four, that would be 72% of all the discretionary spending. I would also this week put on the floor a continuing resolution that secures our border," he told reporters.
McCarthy remained insistent that a government shutdown is the worst possible option and warned his conference of the perils of that strategy. "I don't think shutdowns ever help," he said.
The Senate is set to take an initial procedural vote on Tuesday evening to advance the House-passed Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill -- which could be used as a legislative vehicle for the Senate's version of a stopgap bill to prevent a shutdown.
A stopgap funding extension could be tacked onto the FAA bill since the FAA's current authority to operate will expire at the end of September, creating another looming deadline for lawmakers to act.
A shutdown would have major impacts that would be felt across the country. If that were to happen, many government operations would come to a halt, while some services deemed "essential" would continue.
Government operations and services that continue during a shutdown are activities deemed necessary to protect public safety and national security or considered critical for other reasons. Examples of services that have continued during past shutdowns include border protection, federal law enforcement and air traffic control.
The White House on Tuesday highlighted "damaging impacts" of a shutdown that would undermine national security, pointing to the 1.3 million active-duty military members who would not be paid until the shutdown concludes and the furlough of civilian Defense Department employees.
This story and headline have been updated with additional information.
