WASHINGTON — House Republicans moved Friday toward passing a stopgap spending bill that would strip all funding for President Obama’s health care law, setting up another bitter fiscal showdown just 10 days before much of the federal government is set to run out of money.
Even as the House muscled forward its spending bill, House Republican leaders met behind closed doors with their rank and file on Friday to lay out the next step in the budget battle: a bill that would raise the government’s statutory borrowing limit, delay implementation of the health care law for a year, and push a grab-bag of Republican initiatives, from binding instructions to overhaul the tax code to mandatory construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
All of the measures tied to the debt-ceiling increase have passed the Republican-controlled House before, only to be ignored by the Senate. But this time, said Representative John Fleming, Republican of Louisiana, “we haven’t applied it to a must-pass piece of legislation.”
The two bills — to finance the government through Dec. 15 and raise the debt ceiling — were intended to unite House Republicans and placate an emboldened right wing of the party.
“Defunding is clearly happening today on a spending measure that defunds it in perpetuity. It’s going to pass the House, and I believe the Senate will put up a very strong fight there,” said Representative Tom Graves, Republican of Georgia, who led the push to link further government funding to ending the health care law. “And the American people will have a chance to influence their senators, and this is a great time for the American people to get engaged and let their voices be heard.”
But the gambit also sets Congress down a path with no definitive end, with stakes that rise by the day. Absent a deal between the House, Senate and White House, much of the government would shut down on Oct. 1. And by mid-October, the federal government would face its first debt default, an outcome that would roil the international economy and deal a blow to a domestic economy just getting to its feet.
“We are legislators. We have come here to do a job for the American people,” pleaded Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House minority leader. “What is brought to the floor today is without a doubt a measure designed to shut down the government. It could have no other intent.”
Even as the House muscled forward its spending bill, House Republican leaders met behind closed doors with their rank and file on Friday to lay out the next step in the budget battle: a bill that would raise the government’s statutory borrowing limit, delay implementation of the health care law for a year, and push a grab-bag of Republican initiatives, from binding instructions to overhaul the tax code to mandatory construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
All of the measures tied to the debt-ceiling increase have passed the Republican-controlled House before, only to be ignored by the Senate. But this time, said Representative John Fleming, Republican of Louisiana, “we haven’t applied it to a must-pass piece of legislation.”
The two bills — to finance the government through Dec. 15 and raise the debt ceiling — were intended to unite House Republicans and placate an emboldened right wing of the party.
“Defunding is clearly happening today on a spending measure that defunds it in perpetuity. It’s going to pass the House, and I believe the Senate will put up a very strong fight there,” said Representative Tom Graves, Republican of Georgia, who led the push to link further government funding to ending the health care law. “And the American people will have a chance to influence their senators, and this is a great time for the American people to get engaged and let their voices be heard.”
But the gambit also sets Congress down a path with no definitive end, with stakes that rise by the day. Absent a deal between the House, Senate and White House, much of the government would shut down on Oct. 1. And by mid-October, the federal government would face its first debt default, an outcome that would roil the international economy and deal a blow to a domestic economy just getting to its feet.
“We are legislators. We have come here to do a job for the American people,” pleaded Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House minority leader. “What is brought to the floor today is without a doubt a measure designed to shut down the government. It could have no other intent.”