Republicans in the House confirmed on Wednesday that a 16-day partial government shutdown, primarily due to immigration, may be imminent.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and his Republican colleagues reaffirmed in a series of remarks that when the government budget discussions go back up in the autumn, their main goal would be to make the border a mandatory topic of discussion.
However, the group did not provide any information about how to reach a deal to prevent a government shutdown or the associated financial costs.
“What we witnessed today has only strengthened the resolve of House Republicans,” Johnson told reporters in Eagle Pass, Texas, which is close to the US-Mexico border.
Regarding the goals of the House GOP, he stated, “We want to get the border closed and secure first,” with budgetary management for the United States coming in second.
The US Border Patrol is said to have had a record 300,000 interactions with migrants in December, one of the record surges across the border that House Republicans are publicising.
The remarks The announcement on Wednesday that the US national debt has now exceeded $34 trillion for the first time served as yet another reminder of Congress’s situation. The national debt reached a historic high on December 29, according to data from the Treasury Department.
The current discussion over foreign aid to Israel and Ukraine is expected to complicate the already complex wide-ranging negotiations. More cash for Ukraine has been met with strong scepticism by House Republicans, who have stated that they will only take it up if their desired immigration reforms become law.
However, some analysts of the economy have started to caution that the likelihood of a shutdown is increasing. Brian Gardner, chief Washington policy strategist at Stifel, recently informed investors that “our base case is a partial government shutdown beginning in late January.”
In a recent Yahoo Finance Live interview, Isaac Boltansky, director of policy research at BTIG, acknowledged that there is a chance of a government shutdown, but he also stated that investors “should not care” if further fighting breaks out or becomes a lengthy standstill.
A number of other Republican congressmen who took a firm stance on the border issue during the day repeated Johnson’s remarks made on Wednesday.
“None of us want to shut down the government but all of us recognise that every penny we are giving to the Homeland Security Department at this point … is hurting our national security,” Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas,
In another video from the border region that was put online, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) said, “We shouldn’t be funding the Biden administration’s prerogatives until they start taking care of making our border secure.”
Furthermore, he stated that House Republicans may compel a government shutdown due to the matter, claiming that “when we unite, we have all the power in the world.”
Negotiators have made little forward in the bigger debt discussion, even if they are able to reach a resolution on the immigration issue. They are still unable to agree on top-line appropriations amounts, and it seems unlikely that individual appropriations bills to support the government would pass in time.
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement that “House Republicans are once again compromising America’s national security and economic growth with shutdown threats” in response to the border official’s remarks on Wednesday.
In an interview with Yahoo Finance Live, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said, “A shutdown is not necessary in America at this time.
In addition, he mentioned potential financial losses for the airline sector, claiming that a halt would “stop us in our tracks on one of the most important things we’re doing right now, which is growing the workforce of air traffic controllers.”
On January 19, Secretary Buttigieg’s department may be among the first to go into shutdown, potentially forcing air traffic controllers to work without pay.
A portion of the government, ranging from the Department of Energy and Transportation to the Food and Drug Administration, is now only funded through January 19, 2024, and will shut down on that day absent action from Congress.
Just two weeks later, on February 2, the authorization for the remaining discretionary spending in Washington is scheduled to expire.
However, immigration seems destined to cloud the upcoming negotiations, despite the parties’ significant differences on the appropriations measures.
Regarding that matter, House Republicans are essentially adopting an all-or-nothing stance, claiming that their preferred plan, known as H.R. 2, is the only way to prevent a government shutdown. the May, the House approved the bill.
Senate immigration negotiators, which include Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), and James Lankford (R-Okla.), have been trying to reach a compromise on matters like reforming the asylum system for weeks, but they haven’t made much headway.
“On this, we’re making progress,” Lankford declared in December.
However, a number of House Republicans have vowed to oppose anything the Senate does, even if a compromise is finally revealed.