Funding fight could shut down government

Senate Republican leader floats substitute short-term spending bill

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — A possible government shutdown is looming at midnight Saturday as Republicans and Democrats ratchet up a standoff over federal spending.

Stopgap funding for the federal government expires at midnight Saturday, but an effort to slow down a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill could lead to a temporary suspension of government operations.

Sen. Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican, is planning to force a reading of the 1,900-page spending bill in protest of the bill’s price tag and inclusion of earmarks, or special projects.

Reading the entire bill aloud could take about 50 hours, and a final vote on the bill could come Tuesday, after the current stopgap funding has expired. That would leave the government shut down Sunday and Monday.

The Senate could instead punt a vote on an omnibus spending measure to next year.

Thursday morning, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky introduced a one-page resolution that would fund the government until Feb. 18, at current spending levels.

That would enable the incoming Republican-majority House and a Senate with a bigger Republican minority to consider a major spending bill.

“Once the new Congress is sworn in, we’ll have a chance to pass a less-expensive bill free of wasteful spending,” McConnell said on the Senate floor on Thursday. “Until then, we should take a step back and respect the clear will of the voters.”

On Wednesday, House and Senate Democrats said they had no plans to pass another temporary funding bill.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, is expected to call up the omnibus spending bill sometime on Thursday.

The last time the federal government shut down was mid-December 2005 to Jan. 6, 1996, also over a budget-related stalemate.