Biden vows to veto new GOP proposals

With a government shutdown looming, Republicans seeking to pass funding bills in the House of Representatives are already feeling pushed back by the White House, which is threatening to halt progress.

If two of the bills expected to be voted on this week somehow make it through the GOP-led House and then the Senate, they will hit a wall when they reach President Joe Biden’s desk.

The administration threatened vetoes of HR 4821 and HR 4820, bills affecting the Department of the Interior, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and related agencies, which actively enable a potential government shutdown by only allowing legislation that it is “bipartisan”.

“The House bills would cut Department of Transportation funding by $7 billion compared to fiscal 2023 levels, $1.2 billion in HUD funding compared to 2023 levels, and nearly $4 billion of EPA funding compared to 2023 levels,” The Hill reported.

In a statement issued Monday, the Office of Management and Budget blasted Republicans, saying the bills would violate the agreement President Joe Biden made with former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif. ) during the summer.

“House Republicans had an opportunity to engage in a productive, bipartisan appropriations process, but instead they are wasting their time with partisan bills that reduce domestic spending to levels well below [Fiscal Responsibility Act] deal and endanger critical services for the American people,” the White House said. “These levels would result in deep cuts to clean energy programs and other programs that work to combat climate change, services nutrition essentials, law enforcement, consumer safety, education and health care.”

“These bills include billions in additional IRA rescissions and other vital legislation that would cause unacceptable harm to clean energy and energy efficiency initiatives that lower energy costs and other critical investments in rural areas of America,” the statement continued before fearing the other effects of the bills.

“The bills also include numerous new partisan policy provisions with devastating consequences, including harming access to reproductive health care, threatening the health and safety of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) people Americans, jeopardizing marriage equality, making it difficult to marry critical climate change initiatives and preventing the Administration from promoting diversity, equity and inclusion,” he added.

The White House also noted that the Biden administration “stands ready to engage with both houses of Congress in a bipartisan appropriations process to enact responsible spending bills that fully fund federal agencies in a timely manner.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who was just voted into the office after the seat became vacant following the impeachment of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, met with Biden to discuss funding and the ‘aid to Israel and Ukraine.

The award deadline was moved to Nov. 17 after a near shutdown in September while McCarthy was speaker. Johnson wants to avoid a repeat.

“If we actually get to Nov. 17 and we can’t finish it because it’s detailed work and it takes time, we’ll look at another stopgap measure,” he said Sunday on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”

“But I think everyone will be okay with that because they understand that we’re really doing this work. If we run out of time in the schedule, we might need a little bit more to complete it,” he added.

WATCH: New House Speaker Mike Johnson tells Fox News that avoiding a shutdown is his top priority in the role pic.twitter.com/tVuZu6C88U

— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) October 30, 2023

Senior Staff Writer
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida, where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.

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