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Senate Comes to Bipartisan Agreement on Government Funding Plan.
With little headway being made in negotiations to keep the government’s lights on beyond the end of the week, a shutdown seems all but assured, with Congress shifting into crisis mode as President Joe Biden calls directly on Republicans to help avoid disaster. Rather than respond to that call, however, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) busied himself on Tuesday preparing a request to have his salary withheld until funding is secured.
“It is my understanding that pursuant to the Constitution, members of Congress will continue to receive their pay during a lapse in appropriations,” Gaetz wrote in the letter to the House’s chief administrative officer.
“Therefore, I am requesting that in the case of a lapse of appropriations beginning at 12:00 a.m. on October 1, 2023, my pay be withheld until legislation has taken effect to end such lapse in appropriations in its entirety.”
The letter was obtained by the conservative Daily Caller, with Gaetz confirming it on social media shortly after.
Despite the sense of doom seeping into the halls of the Capitol, the Florida Republican has remained cavalier about the prospect of a shutdown. “I think it would be a shutdown we could endure,” he told reporters last week. “We would have to own it. We would have to hold accountable the leaders who brought it.”
He is also one of a number of hardline conservatives threatening to stonewall any effort to secure any short-term funding extension, known as continuing resolutions, in the hopes that it will force Congress to pass all 12 single-subject appropriations bills post-shutdown.
Without Gaetz and his allies, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) doesn’t have the votes to ram any stopgap measure through the House—and should McCarthy try to team up with the Democrats, Gaetz has promised to bring a motion to dethrone him.
On Tuesday, McCarthy still seemed unreceptive to the idea of reaching across the aisle. “I believe we have a majority here, and we can work together to solve this. It might take us a little longer, but this is important,” he told NBC News. “We want to make sure we can end the wasteful spending that the Democrats have put forth.”
In lieu of congressional bipartisanship, McCarthy is turning to Biden as a potential savior—or at least someone to blame, should the shutdown come to pass. McCarthy began pushing Tuesday for a sit-down with the president, insinuating that Biden might be easier to work with than the Democrats. “Why don’t we just cut a deal with the president?” McCarthy asked reporters, saying it was “very important” to get a meeting on the books.
“Listen, the president, all he has to do… it’s only actions that he has to take. He can do it like
