House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday that there will be no government shutdown, despite the looming December 16 deadline for a deal.
“I think we’ve been pretty clear. We’re not going to have a shutdown. I never thought we would. We aren’t,” Ryan said at a Washington event hosted by Politico.
“We’re putting our bill together. We’ve been negotiating. We’ll be posting sometime today. We’re just waiting for the score keepers to finish drafting.”
Senate leaders said Monday congressional negotiators had made “a lot of progress” in narrowing differences regarding year-end bills to fund the government and extend dozens of expiring tax breaks, but were light on specifics. Senate leaders said Tuesday the deal currently stalled because of GOP insistence on lifting ban on oil exports.
The Senate version would have to be worked out with the House’s, where most members won’t return until Tuesday evening.
Ryan said he knew that Congress would not make the previous deadline which passed last week, calling it “arbitrary.”
“I’m not going to predict how the vote count is going to go down in a negotiation like this. You win some, you lose some,” he said, adding later, “At the end of the day we’re going to get this done.”
The speaker expressed his frustration with how budgets are reached criticizing the process of “a handful of people” collaborating to finalize “a trillion dollar spending bill.”
Ryan also explained why he called out comments from Donald Trump last week regarding the businessman’s proposed ban on Muslim immigrants. Ryan said he rarely comments on individual presidential candidates but explained why he chose to speak out.
“I believe in religious freedom. I believe most of us do. I mean it’s the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. This is who we are. This is why this country was founded in the first place,” he said.
“I think that comment or plan deserved to be called out as an exception, but my rule is not to comment on the people or the ups and downs of the presidential campaign.”
Ryan also brushed off notion that he could be drafted for 2016 presidential race if his party was divided over a nominee, calling it “dumb speculation.”
