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The latest news on a potential government shutdown:
- Congress has little time left to avoid a shutdown, and it still doesn't have a plan.
- Government funding runs out at 12:01 a.m. ET Sunday.
- The Senate has been working in a bipartisan manner and has a bill to fund the government through Nov. 17, which should pass in the coming days, though perhaps not before the weekend deadline.
- Meanwhile, some conservative House Republicans are pushing for deep spending cuts, saying they'll refuse to support the Senate's bill or any short-term legislation that would buy Congress more time to act.
- The House will vote late tonight on four government funding bills that would fund defense and national security agencies, but those bills are dead on arrival in the Senate.
Why the end of federal child care funding matters — whether or not you have young kids
While government subsidies allowed Jordyn Rossignol to keep her child care center in northern Maine afloat during the pandemic, she finally made the wrenching decision in August to shutter because of rising operational costs.
That federal aid, which may not have fixed the industry but served as a critical lifeline, is set to expire at the end of the month, putting other day care providers across the U.S. in jeopardy in what industry advocates are calling a “child care cliff.”
Rossignol, 35, envisions an even more dire scenario.
“It’s going to be a child care apocalypse,” she said. “If someone came to me today and said they wanted to open up a child care center, I’d say, ‘Don’t do it.’ I was in debt, and my health was suffering.”
Ocasio-Cortez says a shutdown would be particularly hard on 'vulnerable workers'
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said a government shutdown would be particularly difficult for federal contractors who are not guaranteed back pay.
While noting that many federal workers would eventually receive money if the government shuts down and later reopens, "there are many people who are working who will not get back pay, including employees of federal contractors," she told MSNBC's Chris Hayes.
"The cafeteria workers are contract workers, and these workers are terrified, because they may not get back pay," she said.
Republican opposition to Ukraine aid grows in the House, threatening funds as war rages
A growing Republican divide over continuing U.S. aid to Ukraine threatens the prospects of Congress’ passing additional money to help the country defend its sovereignty against Russia.
Despite the broad bipartisan majorities in the House and the Senate supporting continued funding, the topic has become a central sticking point in the fight over a looming government shutdown. And hopes are dimming in the GOP-controlled House, where Speaker McCarthy faces growing pressure from hard-liners who want to cut off Ukraine aid and threaten to overthrow him if he fails to meet their demands.
An amendment to the defense funding bill by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., to prohibit all military assistance to Ukraine won 93 Republican votes yesterday, as 126 Republicans and all 213 Democrats voted against it. That’s up from 70 Republicans who voted for a similar measure by Gaetz in July.
A separate amendment by Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., to slash $300 million in arms assistance for Ukraine — an allocation that has been the status quo since Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 — got 104 GOP votes, with 117 Republicans joining 213 Democrats to vote it down.
McCarthy says he's talked to Biden about creating a debt commission
McCarthy told reporters tonight that he talked to Biden about establishing a commission to study and find ways to reduce the national debt.
The speaker also said he met yesterday with House Democrats, as well as Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the top GOP appropriator in the Senate, about adding the commission to a short-term deal to keep the government open.
“A number of members have been pushing the debt commission as a way we could handle, especially our big crisis that we have going on long term. ... I think this will be a very bipartisan committee," McCarthy said.
Asked whether the House will pass the four Republican government funding bills it plans to take up late tonight, he said, "We'll see."
The bills would only partly fund the government and would not avoid a shutdown, and they are dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
McCarthy also responded to the House Freedom Caucus’s letter demanding answers about the plan to pass more conservative funding bills. "If they send me a letter, it’s not for me, it’s for you," McCarthy told reporters about the ultraconservative group. "They’re trying to make news.”
Sen. Rand Paul continues his push to remove Ukraine aid
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., reiterated on X that he would agree to speed up Senate votes on a short-term bipartisan deal to avoid a shutdown — but only if it removes funding for Ukraine.
"To avoid a government shutdown, I will consent to an expedited vote on a clean CR without Ukraine aid on it. If leadership insists on funding another country’s government at the expense of our own government, all blame rests with their intransigence," he wrote.
Paul has been saying for weeks that he will not support quick passage of the Senate's CR if Ukraine funding is included. Otherwise, objections from him and a small group of conservative Republicans could push final passage of the bill into Monday, almost guaranteeing a government shutdown will happen.
While including aid money for Ukraine has considerable bipartisan support in both chambers, a vocal minority has made including it in any stopgap government funding measure a major sticking point.
Treasury says most refunds wouldn’t be processed during a shutdown
The Treasury Department has sent out its plans for a shutdown, highlighting ways it would affect everyday people.
Among those impacts: Taxpayer calls to the IRS would not be answered. "Outside of filing season, for the month of October, the IRS answers approximately 46,000 phone calls per day," the Treasury said.
"Refunds will not be processed except in cases where e-filed, error-free refunds can be direct deposited automatically," which could affect up to "10.5 million individual 1040 filers on extension through the Oct. 16 deadline," the agency said.
"Most core tax administration functions will stop," it said, and "approximately two-thirds of IRS employees — about 60,000 of 90,000 staff" members would be furloughed.
Progressive Caucus won't save McCarthy if there's a motion to vacate
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told reporters this afternoon that the caucus has "extremely strong feelings" about not saving McCarthy if a motion to vacate comes to the floor.
Jayapal said members feel that McCarthy is untrustworthy and, because he has already “handed the gavel to MTG and Matt Gaetz," there can be no worse alternative. ("MTG" is a reference to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.)
She added that Democrats not in the progressive caucus have expressed similar hesitations, but she did not go into specifics.
If the CPC were to vote to save McCarthy, either by voting present or voting to table the motion, they would do so only in exchange for a power-sharing agreement. Jayapal cautioned that that is hypothetical, adding that members want to address House rules before any deal is set.
“The main point is we don't trust Kevin McCarthy, and we shouldn’t. And so, if there needs to be a deal, it should be baked into the rules of the House," Jayapal said.
Jayapal did say a vacant chair during a shutdown would make it harder to open the government, but she added: "I think you have to look at, again, what drives people to recognize, what pushes those so-called moderate Republicans to recognize that they can't keep doing this? What pushes anybody to recognize that we do need to be able to govern and it is in their hands? What pushes people to say, well, we would embrace a power-sharing? I mean, it's got to be pretty bad to embrace that."
Sen. Collins: 'Impossible to predict' if impasse can be resolved
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the top Republican appropriator, told reporters that it's "impossible" to say whether Congress will resolve the government funding crisis or not.
“I think it’s impossible to predict whether we’re going to have a breakthrough or whether we’re going to have a short shutdown over the weekend or whether we’re going to be more serious trouble," she said.
Collins has been huddling with other Republican senators about adding some border security measures to their current bipartisan bill to keep the government open through Nov. 17 to try to win over House Republicans.
"We’re making progress. But there are a lot of different issues: Do we just increase funding for more agents and physical barriers, or do we try to get into policy changes?" she said.
Collins said she has been talking with some House appropriators but not with Speaker McCarthy. "Overwhelmingly people are for some kind of border security amendment. I had suggested that we’d put it in initially, but Sen. Schumer pushed back against doing that. So we’ll see. I mean, it seems to change very quickly over in the House. So who knows?”
The GOP's first Biden impeachment hearing has come to an end
The House Oversight Committee’s first hearing in its impeachment inquiry into President Biden has come to an end, with witnesses testifying that there is no evidence Biden committed a crime.
However, the Republican-selected witnesses did say more bank records are needed from Biden and his son Hunter to fully determine the next steps.
The White House continued to release statements today alleging that the House Republicans used the impeachment hearing to distract from the looming government shutdown.
“Today, House Republicans wasted hours peddling debunked lies, even as their own witnesses admitted there is no evidence that merits this baseless stunt. This flop was a failed effort to distract from their own chaos and inability to govern that is careening the country towards an unnecessary government shutdown that will hurt American families," White House spokesperson Sharon Yang said.