Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg remains hopeful that Congress can move away from the impending government shutdown.
“It just can’t be. We can’t let it be that way,” Buttigieg told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday when he asked if a shutdown was inevitable. “This is no way to run the government of the most powerful nation on Earth.”
House Republicans have been embroiled in bitter infighting over how to avoid a shutdown, with about a dozen members strongly opposed to leaders’ plans to keep the government’s lights on without certain spending cuts.
Each fiscal year, Congress must fund the government to avoid a shutdown, and it has until September 30 at 11:59 p.m. to do so.
But Buttigieg admonished some Republican lawmakers who were calling for deep cuts in federal spending.
“Some of the same House Republicans who were lining up to try to turn disruptions to air travel into a partisan political issue are proposing cuts that will make it harder to modernize our systems,” Buttigieg said on “State of the Union” on CNN.
Earlier this month, for example, Republicans on the House Oversight Committee demanded Buttigieg turn over documents about near misses on American airport runways and railroad safety mishaps.
WATCH: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says government shutdown “cannot be” inevitable.@SecretaryPete: A shutdown means “that air traffic controllers…would not be paid. Think about how stressful a job is on the best of days.” pic.twitter.com/mYl8DOead4
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) September 24, 2023
“Some of the same House Republicans who were… trying to turn the pain of the people of East Palestine, Ohio, into a partisan political issue would reduce railroad safety inspections. “It doesn’t make sense,” he added.
A handful of Republicans in both the House and Senate have criticized Buttigieg’s handling of the February train derailment and toxic chemical spill in East Palestine.
Another grievance for Buttigieg is that lawmakers compromised on top-line spending numbers during a debt ceiling agitation in May, agreeing to cap discretionary spending at $1.59 trillion, much to the chagrin of voters. Hardline Republicans.
Pete Buttigieg was a breakout star in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Now, House Republicans, under pressure from their right flank, are aiming for something closer to $1.471 trillion, the base spending level for fiscal year 2022 and their opening salvo in the fight over the cap. debt.
“The administration’s goal is to get House Republicans to honor an agreement they already reached,” Buttigieg added to NBC.
“By the way, that wasn’t the easiest deal to accept. included cuts [to] the things I was hoping to do in transportation, just to give an example.”
Kevin McCarthy has struggled with an unruly Republican majority in the House of Representatives. AP
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has expressed interest in avoiding a government shutdown.
Financing the government typically requires passing appropriations bills, either taking 12 of them one by one or in a package.
Both McCarthy and hardliners are eager to address each spending bill individually, but the House widely agrees it lacks enough time to complete it by Sept. 30.
The speaker of the House of Representatives has considered a multitude of agreements to appease hardliners, but so far to no avail.Getty Images
That’s why McCarthy and most House Republicans want some kind of stopgap continuing resolution measure to keep the government funded while those bills are debated.
So far, the House has passed only one: the $155.7 billion military construction and veterans affairs bill. Last week, hardliners scuttled a defense bill.
This week, GOP leadership has signaled plans to move forward with additional spending bills.
Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz has emerged as the leading agitator in the standoff over the government shutdown. Bonnie Cash/UPI/Shutterstock
Republicans hold a narrow four-seat majority, leaving leaders little room for maneuver during delicate negotiations.
The House spending legislation puts them at odds with the Senate, which has moved closer to the original contours of the debt limit agreement.
Meanwhile, the Senate has yet to pass a single appropriations bill after having a problem with the so-called minibus bill last week.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn