MCKINNEY, Texas — Even after days of negotiations, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are no closer to unifying around a funding plan for the government than they have been during the months leading up to the Sept. 30 deadline.
In fact, the situation devolved so much, Republican leadership sent members home a couple of days early last week… even with a shutdown looming.
North Texas Rep. Keith Self (R-McKinney) says the situation has passed the point of no return.
“I can assure your viewers that absent some sort of minor miracle, which is not going to happen, we will have a shutdown on 1 October,” Self told us on Inside Texas Politics.
Even a procedural vote for a defense funding bill failed last week in the House.
Before that rejection, Pentagon funding bills typically enjoyed bipartisan support.
Self said many of the temporary funding measures they’ve been debating over the last couple of weeks are too large.
The Republican has told us in the past he would like the see the budget revert back to Fiscal Year 2022 levels.
“That’s why we’re not getting appropriations bills passed because people are rejecting the spending levels that are in these appropriations bills and we are going to fight one, for border security and two, for reasonable budget rather than the explosive growth that are in some of the bills,” said the Republican.
The fiscal year for the United States government ends on Sept. 30.
And if Congress doesn’t allocate funds for government agencies, parts of the government will temporarily shut down on Oct. 1.
Self calls it a “temporary pause in non-essential activities.”