The arrival Tuesday of a partial federal government shutdown brought no movement toward a deal on the funding impasse, as Congressional Republicans sought to merge this fight with one two weeks away over the federal borrowing limit.
Shortly after midnight, House Republicans appointed eight members – including Rep. Tom Graves, a Republican from Ranger – to a conference committee to resolve their differences with the Senate. This morning in a party-line vote, the Senate rejected the plan, amid continued insistence from Republicans that a short-term deal to fund the government include attacks on President Barack Obama’s 2010 health care law.
At noon, the eight conferees staged a press event at a conference table, with their suit jackets removed and binders before them, to show their willingness to negotiate. There were no senators or Democrats to deal with.
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the House Budget Committee Chairman, said if the Senate would allow it, the conference could lead to a long-term budget deal that includes an increase in the debt ceiling. The government is due to reach its borrowing limit Oct. 17, triggering an unprecedented and highly disruptive default.
“That’s what we think will be the forcing action to bring the two parties together,” Ryan said. “Our whole motivation here is to get a budget agreement and we think this is a way to do that. We want our colleagues to come here and work with us.”
Republicans had blocked a budget conference for several months. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he would not begin one now unless Republicans accept a short-term deal to keep the government open — without preconditions.
“We’ve been asking to (go to conference) for months and months, but not with the government closed,” Reid said. “Every day the Speaker refuses to pass the bill they have over there, the resolution they have over there to reopen the government, the American economy loses billions of dollars.”
Georgia Republican U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson voted against Reid and in favor of a conference committee Tuesday. He hopes that negotiations can turn more toward the country’s long-term problems and “structural entitlement reforms instead of health care.”
Isakson said he had already received a handful of calls Tuesday morning urging him: “Stay the course. Don’t give in. Don’t end the shutdown.”
At first, Isakson said, most people will only notice the shuttered national parks. “But then the pressures will rise because of government services being disrupted, government programs, things that involve people’s everyday life,” the senator said.
And given Reid’s ability to hold his caucus together, Isakson said the GOP is in a pickle.
“They appear to be united and they’ve got the votes,” he said. “It makes it hard to negotiate.”
