La Jornada – Republicans block a project to finance the US government’s obligations

Washington. Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy rejected a temporary funding bill introduced in the Senate, bringing Washington closer to the fourth partial government shutdown in a decade.

The possibility of a government shutdown looms at the end of this week unless lawmakers reach a budget agreement. A shutdown would lead to the layoff of hundreds of thousands of federal workers and the suspension of a wide range of government services, including social and food programs. If there is a government shutdown, millions of federal employees will be furloughed, and many others, including those who work in the military and the Transportation Security Administration, will be forced to work without pay until the government reopens.

The Senate plan, which advanced with a wide bipartisan margin on Tuesday, would fund the government through Nov. 17, giving lawmakers more time to agree on funding levels for the full fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

However, in the Republican-majority House, more than a dozen full-year funding bills were debated Wednesday, without significant results. “I don’t see support in the House” for the Senate plan, McCarthy said, although the bill has the support of Republican senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“The president needs to step in and do something about this; “Otherwise, the government will shut down,” McCarthy told reporters.

Amendments to specific funding bills are expected to be voted on late Wednesday in the House of Representatives, although even if the four drafts become law on Saturday, they alone will not be enough to avoid a partial government shutdown.

The situation has begun to attract the attention of rating agencies, and both Moody’s and Fitch have warned that this situation may harm the solvency of the federal government.

Barely at the end of last May, after months of tensions and on the verge of a deadline, the government and Republican lawmakers reached an agreement that would allow the world’s largest economy to avoid default, an event that would have had global repercussions and that was one of the factors that led to the reduction of… US credit rating by Fitch.

Biden says that the US government shutdown is not inevitable

US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that a government shutdown is not inevitable, but if it happens, a lot of vital work in science and health could be affected.

In statements to reporters after addressing a group of science and technology advisors in San Francisco, Biden said that nothing is inevitable in politics.

The possibility of a government shutdown looms at the end of this week unless lawmakers reach a budget agreement.

“If a government shutdown occurs, many vital jobs, science and health could be affected, from cancer research to food security. So the American people need our Republican friends in the House to do their job: fund the government,” Biden said.