OAN’s Taylor Tinsley
4:05 PM – Wednesday, January 17, 2023
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill continue efforts to avoid a partial government shutdown.
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The Senate pushed through its first obstacle to pass a stopgap spending measure on Tuesday night. The measure which would extend government funding deadlines from January 19th and February 2nd to March 1st and March 8th, giving both chambers more time to approve longer-term funding.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the key to finishing a continuing resolution is bipartisan cooperation from both chambers.
When speaking on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Schumer argued that House Republicans want to bully their way into making a shutdown happen.
“What the Senate cannot do right now is mimic the House in its chaos… where a vocal minority of hard, right rabel rousers, wanna bully their way into making a shutdown happen,” Schumer said. “Only in the twisted logic of mag extremism is it a disaster to extend funding. That’s what they said. They want a shut down.”
Schumer worked with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to agree on a continuing resolution over the weekend.
The move was similar to his predecessor, ousted Representative Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), and Johnson received heavy backlash from several members of the House Freedom Caucus.
“We’re not going to get everything we want, but we are going to stick to our more conservative principles,” Johnson said Wednesday. “We’re going to advance fiscal stewardship. I regard this as a downpayment on a real reform that we are going to do in the budgeting process with the budget going forward. And I think much, much brighter days are ahead.”
Democrats maintain that a partial shutdown would be a disaster for the economy, while members of the House Freedom Caucus contend that Speaker Johnson needs to prioritize reigning in government spending.
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