- By
- KRISTINA PETERSON
- And
- JANET HOOK
The House GOP leaders came to an agreement on their funding plan earlier in the day in a rare weekend meeting with rank-and-file Republican lawmakers. Under the plan, House lawmakers will vote Saturday evening to keep the government operating for the first 10 weeks of the fiscal year, through Dec. 15. They will also vote on an amendment to delay the new federal health law for one year, a condition set by a group of conservative lawmakers who believe the Monday budget deadline is their best opportunity to pass limits on the health law.
In addition, the House will vote on an amendment to eliminate a tax on medical devices imposed by the new health law. Both measures were seen as likely to pass in the House.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) quickly rejected the plan, declaring a vote on the measure would be "pointless." Mr. Reid said the Senate would also not accept a House measure repealing a tax on medical devices imposed by the new health law.
European Pressphoto AgencySpeaker of the House John Boehner walks out of a meeting with House Republicans on Capitol Hill Saturday.
"After weeks of futile political games from Republicans, we are still at square one: Republicans must decide whether to pass the Senate's clean CR, or force a Republican government shutdown,'' he said in a written statement, referring to a short-term bill to fund federal agencies that cleared the Senate on Friday.
The White House also weighed in, calling Republicans' strategy and effort to "make an ideological point by demanding the sabotage of the health care law."
White House spokesman Jay Carney said, "Any member of the Republican Party who votes for this bill is voting for a shutdown."
Federal agencies will have to suspend many nonessential services and furlough workers on Tuesday, the start of the new fiscal year, unless lawmakers can come to agreement on a spending plan by Monday night. House Republican leaders said their new spending bill would include a provision requiring U.S. troops to be paid in the event of a shutdown.
Sen. Reid had made clear on Friday that the Senate would accept no changes or amendments to the funding bill it approved that day, and he scheduled the Senate to return Monday afternoon, hard upon the Monday night deadline. However, if the House sends its spending bill to the Senate on Saturday, fresh pressure will fall on Sen. Reid to call the Senate back in session sooner.
House Republicans said their three-pronged plan had unified the GOP conference and could press the Senate to make concessions.
"Maybe they'll panic and do the right thing for once," Rep. Trent Franks (R., Ariz.) said Saturday. "Republicans are extremely unified at this point."
But some of the caucus' more centrist members worried about the rapidly shrinking window of time. Rep. Charlie Dent (R., Pa.) said House Republicans should have rallied around this plan a week earlier, instead of pushing earlier to eliminate funding for the health-care law.
"We ran a lot of time off the clock because of that particular tactical decision," Mr. Dent told reporters Saturday. The Republicans' latest strategy is something of a gamble, he said. "I hope it works, but it may not."
Democrats criticized the House Republican plan. "It's their way or the highway and the highway leads over the cliff," said Rep. Sandy Levin (D., Mich.).
Many House Republicans say their party would likely bear more of the public blame if the government is forced into a partial shutdown. But some argued Saturday that wasn't a reason to shift course.
Republicans said they believed that economic benefits flowing from a repeal of the medical-device tax would offset the loss of roughly $29 billion in revenue over 10 years, the sum that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated the tax will generate.
In his weekly Saturday radio address, Mr. Obama used combative language as he placed the blame on the GOP for the impasse.
"Republicans in the House have been more concerned with appeasing an extreme faction of their party than working to pass a budget that creates new jobs or strengthens the middle class,'' he said. "And in the next couple days, these Republicans will have to decide whether to join the Senate and keep the government open, or create a crisis that will hurt people for the sole purpose of advancing their ideological agenda."
But GOP lawmakers said Saturday that their proposal to delay the health-care law by one year showed their willingness to compromise with Democrats.
"Just delay this thing for one year—it's really not too much to ask," said Rep. Trey Radel (R., Fla.). "President Obama delayed this [law] for big corporations," he said. The White House in July delayed a provision imposing penalties on large employers who fail to provide insurance for their workers.
The standoff brings the federal government to the brink of a shutdown with little obvious room for resolution. Unlike in previous showdowns, there have been no major negotiations among congressional leaders or with the White House.
Mr. Obama in past budget and debt negotiations with Republicans has been accused by fellow Democrats of giving ground too easily. He has adopted a more confrontational style in the current budget battle, including comments on Friday in which he complained of "extremists'' and "shenanigans'' in Congress.
—Patrick O'Connor contributed to this article.
