Unless Congress passes a spending bill before the looming Saturday, December 21 deadline and outgoing President Joe Biden signs it, the United States will suffer a federal government shutdown. So far, none of the bills that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) supported have passed.
If the U.S. House of Representatives passes a bill at the last minute, it will go to the U.S. Senate for consideration. And if the House and Senate reach an agreement, it will go to Biden’s desk.
But according to The Hill’s Alexander Bolton, frustrated Senate Republicans aren’t feeling optimistic.
READ MORE: GOP’s latest ‘intraparty warfare’ puts loyalty to Trump in question: report
One of them is Sen. John Cornyn, who told The Hill, “I get weary with the drama associated with this. This is so dysfunctional and so distracting from the things we should be doing.”
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) is frustrated as well.
Collins told reporters, “I don’t know what the plan is now…. We can’t have a government shutdown, and we’re getting dangerously close to that.”
The Maine senator also said, “My number one goal is to prevent a government shutdown, and (if) we have to do a three-week extension, so be it.”
READ MORE: ‘Institutions kept failing us’: Economist Paul Krugman explains America’s pessimism
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) described the House’s spending battles as “kind of a s—t show.” And when The Hill asked Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) whether or not President-elect Donald Trump still has faith in Johnson, he responded, “We’ll see after this fiasco.”
READ MORE: Allies fear ‘disaster is around the corner’ as Trump ‘stares down first make-or-break moment’
Read The Hill’s full article at this link.
