Senate Republicans fume over 'fiasco' in House

Source: The Hill

12/20/24 6:00 AM ET


Senate Republicans were left fuming Thursday over what they called the dysfunctional “s‑‑‑ show” and “fiasco” they witnessed in the House as two proposals to fund the government through Christmas failed this week. With Washington on the brink of a government shutdown, lawmakers are no closer to having a stopgap funding measure that can pass both the House and Senate and get President Biden’s signature by the end of Friday.

“I get weary with the drama associated with this. This is so dysfunctional and so distracting from the things we should be doing,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who still expressed hope “we’ll pull the rabbit out of the hat” by reaching a last-minute deal to avoid a shutdown.

But as of Thursday evening, just more than 24 hours before the deadline, there didn’t seem any promising path. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), a close Trump ally, said the collapse of Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.), latest proposal to keep the government funded, which lawmakers were calling “plan B,” made a shutdown all but inevitable.

“Shut it down. It’s what’s going to happen. They’re going to shut it down. I guess they’ll try to work it out but, you know, shutting it down isn’t going to make a lot of difference right now,” he said. “You could shut it down to Jan. 5 and come back. Everyone’s going to get paid anyway,” he said of federal workers.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5049966-senate-republicans-house-government-funding/