U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., speaks with reporters as he walks to the House floor at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2023.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
The House of Representatives canceled a scheduled key procedural vote Tuesday on a temporary government funding bill hashed out by Republicans.
The House GOP leadership pulled a vote originally scheduled for 2:30 p.m. ET to advance a stopgap measure to fund the federal government through Oct. 31, according to an updated legislative schedule published by Democratic Whip Katherine Clark.
The U.S. faces a government shutdown if Congress fails to pass a temporary funding measure by midnight Sept. 30.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., supports a temporary funding measure to keep the government running. But he has faced opposition from hard-right members of the GOP.
Key Republican factions in the House reached a tentative deal Sunday to avoid a shutdown by pairing temporary funding with spending cuts and a border security measure backed by the hard right.
But some members of the GOP still opposed the spending measure after a conference meeting Tuesday.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said he would do everything he can to “assemble a coalition to defeat” the measure, called a continuing resolution.
“We will likely have to endure some degree of a shutdown,” said Gaetz, who wants to pass separate appropriation bills to fund government agencies rather than a single temporary measure.
Even if the continuing resolution had been approved Tuesday, it had no chance of winning passage in the Senate, where Democrats hold the majority.
The House has just six days left in session before the Sept. 30 deadline.