WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders have crafted a U.S. government funding proposal intended to prevent a repeat of last year’s politically costly partial federal shutdown.
The House Appropriations Committee late Tuesday unveiled a proposal that would fund the government through Dec. 11 and renew the Export-Import Bank’s charter through June 30. Government funding expires Sept. 30, as does the bank charter.
Last October’s 17-day partial government shutdown — in which Republicans tried to use government funding as leverage to curtail the 2010 health care law — caused Republicans’ public approval ratings to sink.
Now even some Republicans who supported last year’s effort are reluctant to engage in another showdown just before the November congressional election.
“We don’t see any benefit to discussing that,” said Representative John Fleming, a Louisiana Republican who supported last year’s strategy. He said Republicans are bullish on their prospects for picking up seats in November.
“We are going to be gaining seats in the House, we’re likely to take the Senate and with that we can do a whole lot more than we have been able to do in the past, be it Obamacare or anything else,” Fleming said.
During last year’s shutdown, Republicans’ favorability rating sank to a record-low 28 percent, according to a Gallup poll, dropping 10 percentage points in one month.
Winning passage of the spending measure — tentatively slated for a floor vote today — is the latest test for House Speaker John Boehner and his Republican leadership team as they try to appease the business and small-government factions of their conference.
“We will not allow a shutdown” when the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1, Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers, a Kentucky Republican, said after a private meeting of House Republicans Tuesday in Washington. “People realize it’s something we have to do, keep the lights on, keep the government going.”
The Ex-Im bank provides loan guarantees, loans and insurance to help foreign companies buy U.S. goods. Some House Republicans, including Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling, backed by small-government groups including the Club for Growth and Heritage Action, want to abolish the bank. They say it benefits large corporations that don’t need the support.
Without a reauthorization, the agency wouldn’t be able to make new loans though it still could manage existing loans and contracts. The legislation doesn’t provide funding for the bank.
If the House passes the measure, Senate action is likely to follow next week, paving the way for lawmakers to wrap up their work this month and head home to campaign before the Nov. 4 election.
While there’s far less appetite this year among Republican lawmakers to raise the prospect of a shutdown, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a leader of last year’s effort, told reporters Tuesday that his party should try to attach language to the spending measure that would block President Barack Obama from taking executive action on immigration.
