With a government shutdown days away, the House GOP is seizing on the recent rush of border crossings to renew demands that any funding bill include border security measures long sought by Texas Republicans.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Wednesday morning that a bipartisan short-term funding bill the Senate is working to pass is a non-starter in the House, in part because it does not include new border measures. The Senate bill would continue funding the government at current levels until November as Congress works to pass annual spending packages.
Many Texas Republicans have long refused to support government funding bills without stricter border security measures, including resuming construction of a wall and returning to other Trump-era policies. Their position is gaining new traction as the influx in migration has overwhelmed shelters in San Antonio and El Paso and pushed the mayor of Eagle Pass to issue a disaster declaration last week. Border Patrol logged a record 11,000 crossings Tuesday.
"We’re going to ignore that?" McCarthy said. "I think if you want to walk and chew gum at the same time, you have to deal with the issues before you."
The stance, however, moves the two chambers further apart and appears to make a government shutdown more likely after funding runs out at the end of the month. McCarthy said he would tee up a vote on a short-term funding bill with border measures later this week while the House continues votes on a series of annual spending bills full of GOP priorities that are unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate.
read more:
https://www.expressnews.com/politics/texas/article/government-shutdown-border-measures-18392023.php?utm_campaign=CMS%20Sharing%20Tools%20(Premium)&utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral
Replies