Republicans Block Government Funding, Refusing to
Lift Debt Limit
Senate Republicans opposed legislation to avert a
government shutdown and prevent a debt default at a critical moment for
Democrats’ domestic agenda.
Emily
Cochrane
By Emily
Cochrane
Sept. 27,
2021
WASHINGTON
— Senate Republicans on Monday blocked a spending bill needed to avert a
government shutdown this week and a federal debt default next month, moving the
nation closer to the brink of fiscal crisis as they refused to allow Democrats
to lift the limit on federal borrowing.
With a
Thursday deadline looming to fund the government — and the country moving
closer to a catastrophic debt-limit breach — the stalemate in the Senate
reflected a bid by Republicans to undercut President Biden and top Democrats at
a critical moment, as they labor to keep the government running and enact an
ambitious domestic agenda.
Republicans
who had voted to raise the debt cap by trillions when their party controlled
Washington argued on Monday that Democrats must shoulder the entire political
burden for doing so now, given that they control the White House and both
houses of Congress.
Their
position was calculated to portray Democrats as ineffectual and overreaching at
a time when they are already toiling to iron out deep party divisions over a
$3.5 trillion social safety net and climate change bill, and to pave the way
for a bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure measure whose fate is linked to it.
The package
that was blocked on Monday, which also included emergency aid to support the
resettlement of Afghan refugees and disaster recovery, would keep all
government agencies funded through Dec. 3 and increase the debt ceiling through
the end of 2022. But after the bill cleared the House a week earlier with just
Democratic votes, it fell far short of the 60 votes needed to move forward in
the Senate on Monday.
The vote
was 48 to 50 to advance the measure. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the
majority leader, was among those voting “no,” a procedural maneuver to allow
the bill to be reconsidered at some point. But there were no immediate details
about next steps.
The
resulting cloud of fiscal uncertainty marked yet another challenge for Mr.
Biden and Democratic leaders, who are facing a daunting set of tasks as they
press to keep the government funded, scrounge together the votes for the
infrastructure bill — also slated for a vote on Thursday — and resolve their
disputes over the broader budget plan. They must also hatch a new strategy for
raising the statutory limit on federal borrowing, which officials have said is
on track to be reached as early as mid- to late October.
“It may not
be by the end of the week — I hope it’s by the end of the week,” Mr. Biden said
on Monday at the White House, referring to the outlook for accomplishing all of
the imperatives Congress now faces. Ticking off the four pieces of legislation,
he added, “We do that, the country’s going to be in great shape.”
Without any
one of them, Mr. Biden’s agenda and his party’s fortunes would be in peril, a
prospect that Republicans appeared to relish.
Although
both parties willingly racked up trillions of dollars in debt in recent years,
Senate Republicans presented their refusal to vote for the debt cap increase on
Monday as deserved comeuppance for Democrats who are pushing past G.O.P.
opposition to muscle their multitrillion-dollar domestic spending and tax
increase plan through Congress.
“We will
not provide Republican votes for raising the debt limit,” said Senator Mitch
McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, repeating a warning he has issued
for months. He added, “Bipartisanship is not a light switch — a light switch
that Democrats get to flip on when they need to borrow money and switch off
when they want to spend money.”
The debt
ceiling increase is needed to finance borrowing that occurred in the past under
administrations of both parties — not to pay for plans that Mr. Biden has yet
to sign into law. And so far, there is little outreach or negotiation to
resolve the impasse.
Still, Mr.
McConnell sought to frame the vote as a test of Democrats’ competence, as he
and other Republicans vowed to support a nearly identical temporary spending
package without an increase in the debt ceiling.
“We’ll see
if Washington Democrats actually want to govern,” Mr. McConnell said.
Democrats
rejected that alternative, accusing Republicans of recklessly jeopardizing the
country’s full faith and credit. Mr. Schumer said the vote meant “the
Republican Party has now become the party of default, the party that says
America doesn’t pay its debts.”
“This isn’t
your typical Washington fracas,” he said, adding, “it’s one of the most
reckless, one of the most irresponsible votes I have seen taken place in the
Senate.”
Even as the
spending measure fell short, Democratic leaders worked to unite their caucus
behind the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Moderate Democrats have agitated for
a vote this week on that legislation, while liberal Democrats have warned they
will oppose it without action first on the $3.5 trillion social policy and
economic package.
“The bills
are linked,” said Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota and a
progressive. “And they have to be linked in order for anything to pass the
House.”
Amid the
looming deadlines, Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California spoke with Mr. Schumer and Mr. Biden on
Monday, according to a White House summary.
Later, Ms.
Pelosi huddled privately with Democrats to try to break through the impasse in
Congress, signaling that the House would move forward with the $1 trillion
infrastructure bill before the social policy package was fully negotiated.
“It isn’t
about diminishing the importance of the reconciliation,” Ms. Pelosi told
members of her caucus, according to a person who disclosed the remarks on
condition of anonymity. She went on to say that lawmakers could not insist on
waiting to vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, as negotiations
continued with the Senate over the reconciliation package.
Yet as of
Monday evening, it was still unclear how congressional leaders would handle the
urgent legislation to keep the government running. White House officials and
Democratic congressional leaders have ramped up a drumbeat of warnings in
recent weeks about the economic toll of delaying a vote on the debt ceiling.
It is
perhaps the most serious round of brinkmanship over America’s debt, with
economists and analysts concerned that neither side will relent before the
stock market crashes and the government is unable to prioritize sending out
Social Security payments, food assistance or aid to veterans and military
spouses. The most recent projection from the Bipartisan Policy Center, an
independent think tank, estimates that the Treasury Department will run out of
cash to meet all its obligations between Oct. 15 and Nov. 4.
Democrats,
who helped raise the borrowing limit when President Donald J. Trump was in
office, had hoped to pressure at least 10 Republicans into abandoning the
hard-line stance by merging the debt ceiling provision with badly needed money
for their states and the stopgap government funding bill. Now they must regroup
or face a shutdown by midnight Thursday, an outcome they have vowed to avoid.
Some
Democrats pointed to the breakdown as further evidence for their argument that
it was time to change Senate rules to deprive the minority party of a crucial
tool for blocking legislative action.
“This is
playing with fire for us to risk the full faith and credit of the United States
to another damn filibuster,” said Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the
No. 2 Democrat. “As far as I’m concerned, this is proof positive that the
filibuster does not engender bipartisanship, it creates hopeless partisan
divisions.”
The
legislation that failed to advance on Monday would have kept the government
funded past the beginning of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1, giving lawmakers
additional time to negotiate the dozen annual spending bills, and raised the
borrowing limit through Dec. 16, 2022. It also would have provided $6.3 billion
to help Afghan refugees resettle in the United States and $28.6 billion to help
communities rebuild from hurricanes, wildfires and other recent natural
disasters.
“It was
pretty cynical of Senator Schumer to attach relief for disaster victims to
something that he knew wasn’t going to pass — leveraging their pain, leveraging
their pain for something that he can do quite easily,” Senator Bill Cassidy,
Republican of Louisiana, told reporters.
Democrats
decided earlier this year against including a debt ceiling increase in their
budget blueprint, which could have allowed them to include it in the expansive
domestic policy legislation, which they are pushing through Congress using a
budget process known as reconciliation that shields it from a filibuster.
An attempt
to do so at this point would be procedurally complex and time-consuming, given
the strict rules governing reconciliation. Democrats have remained adamant that
they will not do so.
Catie
Edmondson contributed reporting.
Emily Cochrane
is a reporter in the Washington bureau, covering Congress. She was raised in
Miami and graduated from the University of Florida. @ESCochrane
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