McCarthy faces vote to oust him if he works with Senate Democrats planning measure to keep government open for 45 days
Good morning, US politics blog readers. The House and Senate are both back in session today and will make a last-ditch effort to stop the government shutdown expected on 1 October. According to media reports, the Senate’s Democratic leadership plans at 5.30pm eastern time today to hold a vote on a measure that will keep the government open for 45 days and include little of funding for disaster relief or Ukraine’s war effort that party leaders want. Assuming the so-called “clean” continuing resolution passes the chamber, it will go the House, where such a bill would normally attract bipartisan support.
But with extreme rightwing lawmakers threatening to force a vote on ousting Republican speaker Kevin McCarthy if he shows any sign of working with the opposition, and there’s no saying yet if he’ll put the Senate’s legislation to a vote. McCarthy plans to at 6.30pm today hold a procedural vote on his own spending bill – the same kind of vote that failed last week due to the ongoing revolt by the far right. The prospects of the speaker’s effort therefore remain unclear, but one thing is for sure: if Congress doesn’t make any progress resolving this today, the shutdown odds increase.
Joe Biden is heading to Michigan for a visit to a United Auto Workers picket line in what is expected to be a historic show of solidarity for an American president. He’ll be there at 12pm.
Now that they’re back at the Capitol, expect every senator to be asked if they think Robert Menendez, New Jersey’s Democratic senator who was last week indicted for using his position to do favors for the government of Egypt, should resign.
Hunter Biden filed another lawsuit against his conservative antagonists, this time alleging Rudy Giuliani and his ex-attorney tried to hack his devices, CNN reports.