The Obama administration signaled Tuesday that it won’t agree to a short-term spending bill in order to give Congress more time to figure out a longer-term spending agreement.
“I haven’t heard of that option being floated at this point,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest answered when asked if President Obama would sign a short-term extension to give congressional Republicans more time. The fiscal year ends Friday, and without some kind of agreement, the government would likely see a partial shutdown.
“The president certainly is not interested in seeing the government funding lapse but it’s not an executive branch responsibility; this is a legislative branch responsibility and Republicans have a substantial majority both in the House and the Senate,” Earnest said.
“It is the responsibility of House and Senate Republican leaders to pass a bipartisan budget bill that arrives on the president’s desk in time for him to sign it before funding runs out,” Earnest continued. “So, I recognize right now that Republicans in the Congress are scrambling to try and figure out how to get this done.”
“And, you know, some of that may be attributable to fact that they took seven weeks off earlier this year,” Earnest said, referring to the extended August recess lawmakers had. “Maybe that’s time that would have been better spent on putting together a responsible bipartisan budget proposal.”
Democrats in the Senate, meanwhile, were expected shortly after Earnest spoke to once again block the Republicans’ latest spending plan. Democrats are insisting on funding for Flint, Mich., on the bill before they can support it.
