© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: U.S. House of Representatives Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) applaud U.S. President Joe Biden during the annual National Prayer Breakfast at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., Febru
By Steve Holland and Jarrett Renshaw
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden urged the top Democrats and Republicans in Congress on Tuesday to move quickly to pass funding to avoid a looming partial government shutdown and send weapons to Ukraine, or face dire consequences.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Biden said in the Oval Office, with Vice President Kamala Harris at his side and the four leaders sitting on couches nearby.
The White House meeting came almost two months since Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer agreed on a $1.59 trillion discretionary spending level for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1.
Despite that deal, Congress has failed to pass spending bills to fund the government, largely due to in-fighting by Republicans who control the House of Representatives by a thin majority.
Biden said he believed a solution could be reached on funding the government by a Friday deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown, which he said would be damaging to the U.S. economy.
Ukraine funding becomes more urgent every day, Biden said.
“I think the consequences of inaction are dire,” he said of Ukraine.
The spending bill is being held up by demands from ultra-conservative Republicans in the House who want to see spending cuts and policy positions injected into how dollars are spent. A group of hard-right Republicans has brought the government to the brink of a shutdown or a partial shutdown three times in the past six months.
Schumer and Johnson traded accusations in recent days over who was to blame for the stalemate. On Monday, Schumer told reporters that “Democrats are doing everything we can to avoid a shutdown.”
The first batch of government funding, which includes money for agencies that oversee agriculture and transportation, will run out on Friday at midnight, while funding for some agencies including the Pentagon and the State Department will expire on March 8.
The government spending package is separate from the national security aid bill that includes Ukraine and Israel funding.
The House is under pressure to pass the $95 billion national security package that bolsters aid for Ukraine, Israel as well as the Indo-Pacific. That legislation cleared the Senate on a 70-29 vote earlier this month, but Johnson has resisted putting up the aid bill for a vote in the House.
The White House has ramped up public pressure on Johnson in recent weeks as Ukraine marked the second anniversary of the Russian invasion.
“What the president wants to see is we want to make sure that the national security interests of the American people gets put first and is not used as a political football,” Jean-Pierre said. “We want to make sure that gets done.”
Source: Investing.com
