The White House prepares Friday to order federal agencies to prepare for a shutdown after House Republicans left town for the weekend without a viable plan to keep the government funded and prevent

a

politically and economically costly disruption of federal services.

A federal shutdown after September 30 seems almost certain, unless Speaker Kevin McCarthy

(R-Bakersfield)

can convince his insurgent, far-right flank of Republicans that Congress should pass a temporary funding measure to prevent shutdowns while they work on the annual federal spending plan. But the House of Representatives is not expected back until Tuesday, leaving just five days to resolve the impasse.

We got the members working and hopefully we can move forward on Tuesday to pass these bills, McCarthy told reporters at the Capitol.

McCarthy signaled his preference to avoid a shutdown, but a far-right flank of his House majority has effectively taken control. “I still believe that if you shut down, you are in a weaker position,” he said.

The standoff with Republicans in the House of Representatives over government funding poses a series of risks

spending activities

including payment

the

military and law enforcement personnel, food safety and food assistance programs, air travel and passport processing and the like

wreck

destruction of the American economy.

With the Oct. With a new budget year and no funding, the Biden administration’s Office of Management and Budget is preparing to advise federal agencies to review and update their shutdown plans, an OMB official said. The start of this process suggests that federal employees could be notified next week if they are furloughed.

President Biden has been quick to blame the likely shutdown on Republicans in the House of Representatives, who plan to make cuts that go beyond those set out in a June deal that also extended the legal cap on government borrowing until early 2025 was suspended.

They’re at it again, breaking their promise, threatening more cuts and threatening to shut down the government again, Biden said during a recent speech in

suburban

Maryland.

McCarthy is facing enormous pressure for severe cuts from a handful of far-right conservatives in his caucus, effectively halting his ability to lead the House. Many on the right flank are aligned with Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner who is challenging Biden in the 2024 election, and oppose and seek to dismantle the budget deal the speaker reached with Biden earlier this year.

Trump has urged Republicans in the House of Representatives to hold the line against federal spending.

Led by Trump ally Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), the right flank has virtually controlled the debate in the House of Representatives in a public rebuke of the speaker.

Late Thursday, the far-right faction pushed McCarthy to consider their idea to suspend plans for an emergency funding measure, a so-called continuing resolution.

or CR,

and instead start bringing up the twelve individual bills needed to fund the government.

The Republican leadership of the House of Representatives then announced that it would process a package of four bills to be financed

the

The departments of Defense, Homeland Security, State and Foreign Operations and Agriculture are setting up a vote for Tuesday when lawmakers return. Work on some bills was held up by the same conservatives who now demanded passage.

Any progress we make is despite, not because of, McCarthy, as Gaetz posted on social media, mocking the speaker for sending lawmakers home this weekend. Miserable.

Gaetz and his allies say they want the House to do the hard work of legislation, even if it pushes the country into a shutdown as they pursue significant spending cuts and cuts.

The House Rules Committee announced it would meet Friday afternoon to begin preparing the bills, which historically require weeks of debate on the floor, with hundreds of amendments, but are now expected to be rushed to a floor vote. next week’s votes.

It caps a difficult week for McCarthy, who tried unsuccessfully to advance a typically popular defense spending bill that was defeated twice by embarrassing floor votes. The speaker seemed to blame the bill’s rejection on fellow lawmakers who just want to burn the place down.

Shutdowns occur when Congress and the president fail to complete a series of twelve spending bills, or fail to pass a temporary measure to keep the government running. As a result, federal agencies are required to halt all actions deemed non-essential. Since 1976, there have been 22 funding shortfalls, 10 of which resulted in employee layoffs.

The last and longest shutdown on record lasted 35 days during Trump’s administration, between 2018 and 2019, when he pushed for funding to build a wall along the US southern border, which Democrats and some Republicans refused.

to support

.

Because some agencies had already approved funding, it was a partial shutdown. The Congressional Budget Office estimated this would cost the U.S. economy $3 billion. While $3 billion is a lot of money, in 2019 it was equivalent to just 0.02% of US economic activity.

There may be costs to parts of the economy and difficulties for individuals

with one more ending

.

Military and law enforcement officers would go unpaid

during the closure

. The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster fund could be depleted,

refusing help for harming the

victims of wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes and floods.

Clinical trials of new prescription drugs may be postponed. Ten thousand children could lose access to care because of Head Start, while environmental and food safety inspections would fall behind.

Food assistance to Americans through the Women, Infants and Children program could be cut off for nearly seven million pregnant women, mothers, infants and children.

Brian Gardner, Washington chief strategist at investment bank Stifel, said air traffic controllers went unpaid during the previous shutdown. But they continued to work largely unpaid. He noted that visa and passport applications would not be processed if the government is closed.

The American Travel Industry Assn. estimates that the travel industry could lose $140 million daily in the event of a shutdown.

But as a sign of how little damage

the last

The 35-day shutdown has had consequences for the economy as a whole, the S said

standard

& P

ear’s

The 500-stock index rose 11.6% during the last government shutdown.