Last-minute tactic fails, government shuts down
12:00 AM on 10/01/2013
The federal government is closed.
After months, weeks and then a frantic day of brinksmanship on Capitol Hill, Congress failed to pass a bill to fund the government Monday night, shutting it down for the first time in 17 years.
At the heart of the debate was The Affordable Health Care Act, a law that survived Republicans taking control of the House, a presidential election and a Supreme Court challenge. Attaching it to a deal to fund the government was the Republican Party’s last chance to block its rollout–which begins Tuesday.
But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rejected all attempts to touch the law and President Barack Obama threatened a veto.
The law will still roll out on schedule, despite the shutdown, and millions of Americans without health insurance will be able to begin signing up for coverage online.
The question for the rest of the government is: what’s next?
Late Monday night, the Office of Management and Budget ordered heads of executive departments and agencies to “execute plans for an orderly shutdown.”
Here’s where things stand: Boehner tried to force negotiations into a formal committee process Monday night. But Reid balked at the idea. “Republicans are still playing games,” said Reid on the Senate floor. “This is all a subterfuge to satisfy the Tea Party-driven Republicans.”
“We will not go to conference with a gun to our head,” Harry Reid said.
Reid said he would be willing to send senators to conference to work on a solution for funding the government through the rest of the fiscal year, once the immediate threat of a shutdown was removed.
It’s also an abrupt about-face by Republicans who have spent months refusing Democratic offers to hold a conference and work out a budget before October 1.
“The right thing to do was to go to conference any time in that last six months, as we asked 18 times but were told no by the same people who are now sitting on the other side of the aisle saying we want to shut the government down,” Patty Murray said on the floor.
In the House, Boehner wrestled with a conference pressuring him from the right and the left.
House moderates were pressuring their conference to pass the Senate’s “clean” stopgap budget, but Boehner ultimately heeded the calls by the conservative flank to rule out such a measure.
Boehner lost a dozen votes on his final bill, when moderates peeled off.
Other Republicans tried for a last-ditch solution to stop a shutdown, including Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul who both floated the idea of a one- or two-week delay.
Sen. John McCain predicted Republicans would ultimately need to fold–and should just do it.
After months, weeks and then a frantic day of brinksmanship on Capitol Hill, Congress failed to pass a bill to fund the government Monday night, shutting it down for the first time in 17 years.
At the heart of the debate was The Affordable Health Care Act, a law that survived Republicans taking control of the House, a presidential election and a Supreme Court challenge. Attaching it to a deal to fund the government was the Republican Party’s last chance to block its rollout–which begins Tuesday.
But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rejected all attempts to touch the law and President Barack Obama threatened a veto.
The law will still roll out on schedule, despite the shutdown, and millions of Americans without health insurance will be able to begin signing up for coverage online.
The question for the rest of the government is: what’s next?
Late Monday night, the Office of Management and Budget ordered heads of executive departments and agencies to “execute plans for an orderly shutdown.”
Here’s where things stand: Boehner tried to force negotiations into a formal committee process Monday night. But Reid balked at the idea. “Republicans are still playing games,” said Reid on the Senate floor. “This is all a subterfuge to satisfy the Tea Party-driven Republicans.”
“We will not go to conference with a gun to our head,” Harry Reid said.
Reid said he would be willing to send senators to conference to work on a solution for funding the government through the rest of the fiscal year, once the immediate threat of a shutdown was removed.
It’s also an abrupt about-face by Republicans who have spent months refusing Democratic offers to hold a conference and work out a budget before October 1.
“The right thing to do was to go to conference any time in that last six months, as we asked 18 times but were told no by the same people who are now sitting on the other side of the aisle saying we want to shut the government down,” Patty Murray said on the floor.
In the House, Boehner wrestled with a conference pressuring him from the right and the left.
House moderates were pressuring their conference to pass the Senate’s “clean” stopgap budget, but Boehner ultimately heeded the calls by the conservative flank to rule out such a measure.
Boehner lost a dozen votes on his final bill, when moderates peeled off.
Other Republicans tried for a last-ditch solution to stop a shutdown, including Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul who both floated the idea of a one- or two-week delay.
Sen. John McCain predicted Republicans would ultimately need to fold–and should just do it.
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