House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy insists there won’t be any government shutdown over taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood.
A bloc of conservatives are pressuring GOP leaders to strip government funding for the organization after videos released by an anti-abortion group earlier this year featured officials from Planned Parenthood discussing the sale of fetal tissue. But after the shooting at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic that left three dead last week it appears Republican leaders are reluctant to risk a fight with the White House and Hill Democrats over the issue.
“I do not see a shutdown happening,” McCarthy told reporters at the Capitol on Monday.
Congress must pass a spending bill by Dec. 11 to avoid a shutdown. Though McCarthy suggested the deadline for the funding bill could shift since Congress is scheduled to be in town until December 18. While he hoped to vote on some measure by the end of next week, both the House and Senate could need some additional time to wrap up business on the spending bill. A stopgap measure to keep federal spending at current levels would be needed to bridge the week long gap.
McCarthy didn’t rule out that Planned Parenthood language could be added in some fashion to the spending bill saying, “I expect there to be a healthy debate on every place the government spends money and that’s the way democracy works.”
He made it clear the spending bill would include some mix of policy riders, but declined to describe which ones.
Many conservatives argue the spending bill is their main leverage with the administration, and are floating adding provisions to block implementation of climate change rules, Obamacare, and other Democratic priorities. House Speaker Paul Ryan has not signaled yet which of these he wants to press as negotiators on both sides try to hammer out a spending bill.
McCarthy also said that after the terror attacks in Paris, “security is becoming the top issue” that he hears about from GOP colleagues.
The No. 2 House GOP leader touted the veto-proof margin on legislation that passed the House before Thanksgiving that would require the Secretary of Homeland Security to certify any refugees from Iraq and Syria don’t pose a security threat. He suggested that refugee measure could be added to the government funding legislation, saying, “That bill needs to pass and become law whichever way it can.”
The Obama administration is warning Republicans not to include controversial policy provisions in the government funding bill.
“I say with some confidence the newly elected Speaker of the House doesn’t want to preside over a government shutdown six weeks into his tenure,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said during a briefing in Paris.