With just hours to go before a midnight deadline, the Senate swiftly nixed a House-passed government funding proposal late Monday, tossing the legislation back to the lower chamber with unusual speed as the nation careened towards a federal shutdown.
Shortly after receiving the House proposal to fund the government and delay a key provision of the president's health care law, the Senate voted along party lines to send the bill back to the House for a last-ditch effort at meeting a midnight deadline to keep the government's lights on.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on the Senate floor before the vote that Republicans "have lost their minds" by repeatedly voting for "ridiculous policy riders" destined for failure in the Democratically-controlled Senate.
The House measure -- which would fund the government through mid-December but also delay Obamacare’s individual mandate by one year -- passed 228-201, with 12 Republicans bucking their leaders to vote against the plan and nine Democrats voting for it.
Republican
House Speaker John Boehner delivers remarks on the House floor Monday
to push a government funding bill that includes a delay to the
Affordable Care Act's individual mandate.
Speaking on the House floor shortly before the final vote, House
Speaker John Boehner said the vote to delay the mandate was about
"fairness."
"I would say to the president: This is not about me," Boehner said. "This is not about Republicans here in Congress. It's about fairness for the American people."
Republicans were not united on a key procedural measure shortly before the final vote on the House plan, prompting some speculation that it would fail and Boehner would be forced back into negotiations. Ultimately only a handful of Republicans broke with Boehner to oppose it.
A bloc of moderate Republicans began speaking out against the measure Monday afternoon, noting that the House’s repeated attempts to tie Obamacare changes to the government funding measure had failed in the Senate.
“We've already launched two volleys unsuccessfully and now it's time to go on with the business of governing the country.,” Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., told reporters. “The hourglass is already empty and it's time that we pass a clean CR.”
And outside conservative groups were split on the newest version of the funding bill. Heritage Action argued that the move to delay the individual mandate does not go far enough, although the group says it will not hold votes of support against Republican members. The anti-tax group Club for Growth urged its members to vote for the new House measure.
The call came shortly after the president urged Republicans to pass a “clean” funding bill rather than tying an Obamacare-delaying provision to the legislation and accused GOP leaders of acting to "save face after making some impossible promises to the extreme right wing of their party."
“One faction of one party in one house of Congress in one branch of government doesn't get to shut down the entire government just to re-fight the results of an election," he said during a statement at the White House.
The president said that hundreds of thousands of federal employees would be affected if the government is forced to close down much of its day-to-day operations tomorrow morning.
"They would be hurt gravely," Obama said of workers who would be furloughed or asked to work without pay tomorrow should a shutdown come to pass. "And as a consequence, all of us would be hurt gravely should the congress choose to to shut the people's government down. A shutdown will have a very real impact on real people right away."
In an afternoon interview with NPR News, Obama reiterated that any funding measure that involves major changes to Obamacare is a non-starter.
Asked what he can ‘offer’ towards a compromise – especially once the debate shifts to the debt ceiling -- Obama insisted he should not have to negotiate over the issue.
“I shouldn't have to offer anything,” he told radio host Steve Inskeep. “They're not doing me a favor by paying for things that they have already approved for the government to do. That's part of their basic function of government, that's not doing me a favor.”
The Senate voted along party lines earlier Monday afternoon – 54 to 46 – to reject a previous proposal by Republicans, which would have also continued funding the government but delayed in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
“We are not going to do anything other than wait for them to pass our CR,
because otherwise, government's going to shut down,” he said Monday
afternoon at a press conference on Capitol Hill."I would say to the president: This is not about me," Boehner said. "This is not about Republicans here in Congress. It's about fairness for the American people."
Republicans were not united on a key procedural measure shortly before the final vote on the House plan, prompting some speculation that it would fail and Boehner would be forced back into negotiations. Ultimately only a handful of Republicans broke with Boehner to oppose it.
A bloc of moderate Republicans began speaking out against the measure Monday afternoon, noting that the House’s repeated attempts to tie Obamacare changes to the government funding measure had failed in the Senate.
“We've already launched two volleys unsuccessfully and now it's time to go on with the business of governing the country.,” Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., told reporters. “The hourglass is already empty and it's time that we pass a clean CR.”
And outside conservative groups were split on the newest version of the funding bill. Heritage Action argued that the move to delay the individual mandate does not go far enough, although the group says it will not hold votes of support against Republican members. The anti-tax group Club for Growth urged its members to vote for the new House measure.
The call came shortly after the president urged Republicans to pass a “clean” funding bill rather than tying an Obamacare-delaying provision to the legislation and accused GOP leaders of acting to "save face after making some impossible promises to the extreme right wing of their party."
“One faction of one party in one house of Congress in one branch of government doesn't get to shut down the entire government just to re-fight the results of an election," he said during a statement at the White House.
The president said that hundreds of thousands of federal employees would be affected if the government is forced to close down much of its day-to-day operations tomorrow morning.
"They would be hurt gravely," Obama said of workers who would be furloughed or asked to work without pay tomorrow should a shutdown come to pass. "And as a consequence, all of us would be hurt gravely should the congress choose to to shut the people's government down. A shutdown will have a very real impact on real people right away."
In an afternoon interview with NPR News, Obama reiterated that any funding measure that involves major changes to Obamacare is a non-starter.
Asked what he can ‘offer’ towards a compromise – especially once the debate shifts to the debt ceiling -- Obama insisted he should not have to negotiate over the issue.
“I shouldn't have to offer anything,” he told radio host Steve Inskeep. “They're not doing me a favor by paying for things that they have already approved for the government to do. That's part of their basic function of government, that's not doing me a favor.”
The Senate voted along party lines earlier Monday afternoon – 54 to 46 – to reject a previous proposal by Republicans, which would have also continued funding the government but delayed in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
The differences between House Republicans and Senate Democrats seemed as stark as ever late Monday, with a government shutdown that would furlough hundreds of thousands of federal workers without pay hanging in the balance.
After Reid demanded that the House approve the “clean” extension of government spending sent back to them by the Senate this afternoon, Boehner replied bluntly: “That’s not going to happen.”
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