Just four days out from a government shutdown, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has declared a bipartisan Senate stopgap measure dead on arrival.

Senators, having apparently lost faith in McCarthy’s ability to stave off a shutdown, negotiated a bill late Tuesday night that funds the government until Nov. 17 and includes $12 billion in aid and disaster relief for Ukraine. It’s expected to be voted on by the end of the week before being sent over to the House, and is intended to buy lawmakers more time to hash out a longer-term deal, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said.

But, according to Punchbowl News, McCarthy said in a closed-door meeting on Wednesday morning that he wouldn’t take up a bill that includes Ukraine funding but no border security measures. “I don’t see the support in the House,” he reportedly said.

Aid for Ukraine has been one of several sticking points for ultraconservative hardliners in the House who have repeatedly sabotaged McCarthy’s efforts to get spending bills passed.

  • ramble81
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    1 year ago

    I know the likelyhood of this occurring is low, but wasn’t one of the conditions of his speakership was that anyone in the house (or was it restricted to just republicans?) could recall him. If so, would it be possible for a republican to recall him, get a small handful of republicans to join the democrats to instate a new speaker and then vote on the bipartisan bill?

      • ramble81
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        1 year ago

        Meant to say have the small number of republicans join with the democrats to vote in someone more sane. Edited my post to reflect that.