![]() Less than two weeks before the federal government is scheduled to run out of money, members of Congress appear to be more divided than ever regarding spending and budget priorities. Those divisions were seen in a failed effort to approve a short-term funding stopgap that proved unpopular enough with a segment of the House of Representatives’ membership so as to be withdrawn before the proposal was even voted on. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy expressed frustration with members of his own caucus for failing to consider that bill but told reporters: “I like a challenge. I don’t like this big a challenge—but we’re just going to keep doing it until we can make it.” Although a proposal unveiled over the weekend included both a stopgap funding measure as well as significant funding cuts and enhanced border controls, a small group of Republican lawmakers have said they want deeper cuts, among other things, and will hold off even if it results in a government shutdown. Arkansas Republican Congressman Steve Womack has suggested that, for now, attempts to forestall the shutdown may be doomed to failure. He noted that there is currently a “sufficient number of people right now on the record, on social media, saying that they’re not going to take it up or not going to support it.” As quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Womack added that the Senate is “trying its best to at least present an appropriations package than can clear the Senate and maybe come over to the House and get some bipartisan votes.” According to a document prepared last month by the Office of Management and Budget, all federal agencies are expected to have at the ready shutdown plans to be activated within one day of the shutdown. Those same agencies, notes the publication Business Insider, should also have plans "for a shutdown that extends for a prolonged period of time.” A recent Brookings Institution study notes that while in a shutdown a large segment of federal employees is told not to report for work, both Medicare and Social Security “continue to flow because they are authorized by Congress in laws that do not need annual approval.” By Garry Boulard
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