House Democrat leadership responded to questions on their approach to addressing a potential government shutdown in 10 days and how they would work with Republicans if they move to vacate the House Speaker.
At a Sept. 19 press briefing, when The Epoch Times asked whether Democrats would work with Republicans on a compromise to find a plan both parties can agree on to fund the government before the Sept. 30 deadline, Democrat leaders were clear they wanted to “govern” but planned to keep to previous agreements made by lawmakers.
Congress must pass 12 spending bills annually to fund various government programs. Failure to pass these bills would result in a full or partial shutdown of the federal government, in which only the most essential federal employees continue to work.
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) must reconcile an ideologically divided House while balancing negotiations with the Democrat-controlled Senate and White House in order to pass the necessary series of bills.
When asked explicitly by The Epoch Times if Democrats would be willing to make concessions on non-defense spending and the appropriations spending legislation, as well as on pandemic-related funding, Mr. Aguilar said, “We'll make this very clear, we want to abide by the deal that speaker McCarthy agreed to with President Biden.”
“We’re willing to mark up those appropriations bills and to carry forward the necessary and important work to fund [the] government to make sure that National Parks stay open, to make sure we’re doing cancer research, to make sure we’re protecting the border, and that we’re reducing the scourge of fentanyl that’s coming across [the border].
“Those are the things that House Democrats want to invest in. That’s exactly what we agreed to. That’s exactly what Speaker McCarthy agreed to. And we look forward to getting that done for the American people.”
The lawmaker did not expand on whether House members on the Democrat side were willing to cut pandemic-related budget items, repeatedly referencing the previous fiscal plan that Republicans have since amended.
On the topic of a potential motion to vacate the Speaker of the House within the Republican Party, House Democrats seemed more willing to cooperate with Republicans, highlighting their willingness to collaborate with their counterparts should such a motion come before the House.
While Mr. Aguilar refrained from speculating on the specific reasons behind potential motions to vacate the House speaker, he said, “It wouldn’t surprise any of us if, if any of those members took action, to oust him at some point.”
A funding debate was at the top of lawmakers’ to-do list earlier this year when Republicans spent weeks in a standoff with Democrats over the debt ceiling, or the maximum amount the U.S. Treasury can legally borrow. Not increasing that amount would have resulted in a default, something that experts asserted would have tanked the value of the U.S. dollar.
A confrontation between former President Donald Trump and Democrats over funding for a border wall, the longest government shutdown in United States history, began in December 2018 at the end of the 115th Congress and lasted 34 days into the 116th Congress.
Despite initially wanting to continue the shutdown, President Trump conceded, and the government was reopened.
Due largely to the single-party control of both houses of Congress and later the White House, the United States has avoided a government shutdown for the past four and a half years.
But now that the Republicans control the House and the Democrats control the Senate, a shutdown once again becomes a possibility, and an issue soliciting serious concern on Capitol Hill.
