
GOP tries to rally votes to avoid government shutdown
Clip: 3/10/2025 | 3m 59sVideo has Closed Captions
GOP leadership tries to rally House votes for bill to avoid government shutdown
The Republican stopgap spending proposal that would avert a government shutdown is up against the key hurdle of clearing the House Rules Committee. Then it faces an uphill climb before a possible vote on the House floor. Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins reports.
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GOP tries to rally votes to avoid government shutdown
Clip: 3/10/2025 | 3m 59sVideo has Closed Captions
The Republican stopgap spending proposal that would avert a government shutdown is up against the key hurdle of clearing the House Rules Committee. Then it faces an uphill climb before a possible vote on the House floor. Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins reports.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipAMNA NAWAZ: The Republicans stopgap fending proposal that would avert a government shutdown in the coming days is up against a key hurdle this evening.
Following this all is our own congressional correspondent, Lisa Desjardins, who joins me now.
Lisa, good to see you.
LISA DESJARDINS: Good to see you.
AMNA NAWAZ: Here we go again.
LISA DESJARDINS: Yes.
AMNA NAWAZ: So, four days now until another potential government shutdown, what are House Republicans proposing, and do they have the votes?
LISA DESJARDINS: Reminder, Republicans do control all three branches of government.
They don't have 60 votes in the Senate yet.
But Republicans over the weekend in the House did propose an extension of government funding.
It would extend funding for six months.
And it is not a so-called clean bill.
It is a bill that has some very interesting specifics to it.
So I want to look at those.
Number one, at the top, this would cut $13 billion in non-defense.
Relative to all of government spending, that's not a lot.
But it's a statement from Republicans that that's where they want to cut.
It would increase $6 billion for defense spending.
It would also increase $500 million for the Women, Infants, and Children's program.
That helps mothers, especially with babies.
Now, in this bill, there is also something missing.
There is no fix for a Medicare doctor rate cut.
We haven't talked about this a lot.
This was expected to be solved in this bill.
But, on January 1, Medicare doctors saw their reimbursement rate cut by almost 3 percent.
This is something that was supposed to be taken care of before now, supposed to be in this bill, and it is not.
This is a real problem for those doctors.
In addition, one more item in this that is divisive, this would increase spending that ICE can use for deportations, detentions, and that's something Republicans like and Democrats do not.
AMNA NAWAZ: So what are the hurdles here ahead for Republicans?
How are Democrats looking at this?
And would either cause a shutdown?
LISA DESJARDINS: It's -- there's so much heavy and important policy here.
So many lives will be affected by this kind of thing.
But the truth is that it comes down to vote counts.
And House Republicans right now still can only lose one Republican vote and get this bill through with just Republican support.
So let's look at some of the votes that we're watching here.
These two members of the House Republican Conference, Thomas Massie and Tony Gonzales, have said they will never vote for this kind of continuing resolution.
So that's two votes.
They can only lose one.
There's another person I'd like to bring up that we don't talk about a lot here.
This is Greg Murphy of North Carolina.
He's the only practicing surgeon in the House.
He has a real problem with the lack of a fix for those Medicare doctors.
So that's three potential votes out.
Now, some moderate Democrats could switch and help out Republicans here.
Let's look at two of those on that list, Jared Golden of Maine, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington state.
So, all this, bottom line is, yet again, we're days away from a shutdown and it really is not clear if this train is going to break in time, probably, but not certain yet.
AMNA NAWAZ: So the big question, what happens next?
LISA DESJARDINS: OK, I want to take people through this process because in the next day it's going to move fast and it's going to be important.
So what's going to happen to avoid a shutdown?
What's needed to happen?
Number one, the first step is the House Rules Committee meeting right now will have to push -- and you can maybe show a picture of the House Rules Committee.
There they are.
They are meeting tonight to get this momentum going, get this on the floor tomorrow for a vote.
Let's go through the process after this.
Tomorrow, if the House votes on that rule, that's the procedural thing that opens the door.
Democrats will not help Republicans.
This might be the biggest issue here.
Republicans need to vote almost unanimously to get that rule vote together tomorrow.
Then the full House will vote on this.
They really need help from Democrats.
That's the second hurdle.
Then the third hurdle here, the full Senate will have to vote and they will need Democratic help there.
So, three important votes coming up.
I still think this could do it, but we're going to see some interesting politics here and clusters of members voting against their party on each one, but we have to watch this closely.
AMNA NAWAZ: You're going to be doing exactly that for us.
Lisa Desjardins, thank you so much.
LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipMajor corporate funding for the PBS News Hour is provided by BDO, BNSF, Consumer Cellular, American Cruise Lines, and Raymond James. Funding for the PBS NewsHour Weekend is provided by...