Reid to reporters Were not going to cave on this.
Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON D.C. In Washington D.C. Tuesday Congressional leaders from each party accused the other of playing games with legislation to keep the government temporarily funded through Sept. 30th. Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid (D-Nev.) warned there is a chance the government could shutter by the end of this month if a bill is not passed.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Reid was playing a political game asserting that the Senate Democrat would be solely to blame if a shutdown occurred.
Reid said the deadline for getting a deal on a short-term Continuing Resolution is Friday Sept. 30 the last day of the current Fiscal Year for the federal government.
At issue is increased funding for the
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help a number of states recover from various natural disasters.
Because Senate & House Democrats last year failed to produce let alone pass an annual Federal Budget temporary Continuing Resolutions have kept
government operating at interm funding levels pending passage of the usual Appropriations Bills.
The interim government funding bill known as a Continuing Resolution that the House will take up on Wednesday contains $3.65 billion for FEMA. The Senate however has previously approved stand-alone legislation that would provide $6.9 billion in relief funds.
Reid also indicated Congress could cancel its scheduled recess for the last week of September if a spending deal is not reached.
If they want to stay into next week thats fine we can do that he said. We can work all next week.
Criticizing House Republicans for the disaster relief provisions in their budget bill Reid told reporters Were not going to cave on this.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday confidently predicted the two sides will come together by Thursday night: There wil not be a government shutdown.
Reid however said Im not that sure there wont be a shutdown. He added I am not as certain as McConnell.
Reid announced Tuesday he would be amending the House bill to include the Senates level of increased funding.
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) who appeared alongside Reid at a press conference insisted the House GOP approach was inadequate and wholly
unprecedented for requiring immediate offsets to pay for the disaster funding.
We will eventually pay for it but we can argue about that later she said.
The two Democrats ramped up pressure on the 10 Republican senators almost all in disaster-affected areas who previously voted for the stand-alone bill with higher funding.
