The US government is approaching its fourth shutdown in a decade
According to a report from Hong Kong 01 website on September 22, due to resistance from conservative Republican lawmakers, the US federal government's new fiscal year budget has not been passed, which increases the risk of government shutdown.
According to reports, Republican Speaker of the House McCarthy has yet to resolve party disagreements as of September 21st, involving a defense budget bill worth $886 billion. Although other provisions prohibiting military abortion, gender reassignment, and others have been added, conservative Republican lawmakers are still dissatisfied and have defected for the third time, jointly opposing the submission to the convention for debate with Democratic lawmakers. This is also the second time this week.
After a two-and-a-half-hour meeting on the 21st, the House of Representatives continued to shelve the debate on the defense budget law with 212 votes in favor and 216 votes against. Due to the Republican Party's narrow advantage in the House of Representatives, it was a setback for McCarthy when five conservative lawmakers defected and did not have enough votes to deliver the bill for debate. The Republican version of the defense budget bill also faced opposition from the Democratic Party due to the addition of certain provisions.
The report pointed out that according to the schedule, the government fiscal year will end at midnight on September 30th, and if there is no new funding in place, various departments will need to shut down.
Due to the budget bill still being deadlocked in the House of Representatives, even if the revised bill is passed in the Republican led House, it is unlikely to pass through the Democratic controlled Senate. Unless Congress passes a temporary spending bill before the deadline, the United States may experience its fourth government shutdown in ten years.
According to a report on the CNN website, Republican leaders in the US House of Representatives are demanding that Republican members go home for the weekend. At the same time, the House of Representatives is still deeply divided over the government budget, and the possibility of a government shutdown next weekend is increasing.
The report said that Republican congressmen had originally planned to continue meeting over the weekend to discuss a temporary government budget bill. But this strategy has now been put on hold because there is a serious infighting among Republicans in the House of Representatives, which could paralyze the entire House.
According to multiple lawmakers and congressional aides, the new plan is for Republicans to attempt to pass a separate long-term spending bill as their short-term budget bill cannot receive the necessary Republican votes due to opposition from hardliners.
