The risks to the economy of a long-term shutdown
The most immediate impact of a shutdown will be furloughs and paused paychecks for hundreds of thousands of government employees and contractors.
Analysts don’t expect to see major ripple effects across the U.S. economy if a shutdown lasts just a few weeks, but the longer the federal government stays closed, the greater the chances of broader fallout.
Here’s a look at what to expect:
The House is voting now on a bill to avoid a shutdown for 45 days
The House is voting now on Speaker McCarthy's 45-day stopgap measure to avoid a shutdown.
Rep. Jamal Bowman allegedly pulls fire alarm in House building
Some reports began to emerge on Twitter that Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., was seen on camera pulling a fire alarm in the Cannon House office building earlier today around the time the House was supposed to begin voting on the new CR plan.
The House Administration Committee, which oversees the Capitol Police, posted a statement on X, formerly Twitter, from Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis.
“Rep Jamal Bowman pulled a fire alarm in Cannon this morning. An investigation into why it was pulled is underway. — Chairman Bryan Steil”
Neither Bowman nor the Capitol Police immediately returned requests for comment.
Democrats cheering as Jeffries promises news soon
Members have been coming back into the conference meeting and Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., came back a moment ago, saying he would have some news shortly.
We just heard cheers from the room.
McConnell says he is encouraging GOP to vote no on Senate CR
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he is now encouraging his conference to vote no on the bipartisan Senate CR (which he has very vocally supported until this point), saying it’s “not necessarily because they’re opposed to the underlying bill — but to see what the House can do on a bipartisan basis, and then bring it over to us.”
“It looks like there may be a bipartisan agreement coming from the House," he said. So, I’m fairly confident that most of my members, our members, are going to vote against cloture — not necessarily because they’re opposed to the underlying bill — but to see what the House can do on a bipartisan basis, and then bring it over to us. So, under these circumstances, I’m recommending a no vote even though I very much want to avoid a government shutdown.”
The move likely means that the procedural vote the Senate was about to hold, which would be at a 60-vote threshold, would fail, blocking consideration of the bipartisan CR that the Senate has been working on all week. It’s not entirely clear if Schumer will continue with the vote, or wait to hold it until the House votes on their new CR.
Jeffries has finished talking, debate continues
Leader Jeffries has stopped talking on the floor after 52 minutes. Debate on the 45-day CR has resumed.
The 'motion to vacate' explained: How the House can oust a speaker
Rep. Matt Gaetz and other GOP hard-liners have been threatening to bring a motion to vacate, a vote to overthrow McCarthy as speaker.
Here’s what you need to know about how a motion to vacate would work and the history of the maneuver:
In his bid to become speaker of the House, McCarthy agreed to a number of concessions to secure the support of Republicans who originally opposed him. One was a rule change to allow just a single member to try to force him from office.
Under the House rules passed in January, only one member of Congress — Democrat or Republican — is needed to bring a “motion to vacate,” which forces a vote on removing the speaker. That would need only a simple majority of the House to pass to oust McCarthy.
So in theory, a small group of Republicans who want to force out the speaker could work with Democrats to reach the votes needed to remove the speaker.
McCarthy: 'I tried to pass the most conservative bill I could'
Speaker McCarthy told reporters he's trying to "be the adult in the room."
"I tried to pass the most conservative bill I could, and a few Republicans said no to that," McCarthy said. "So, here we are, hours away. The Senate cannot act in time. Government will shut down. So, I want to be the adult in the room. A clean bill to ... keep government funded, make sure FAA is there and then take care of the disasters that happened over the summer from Florida, Hawaii, California, Vermont."
McCarthy accused Democrats of "trying to stop it from happening."
"They’re trying to slow everything down. So we have a government shutdown. I don’t understand that," he said.
Jeffries: We're 'expected to simply trust the word' of GOP?
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.., is still speaking on the floor, criticizing Republicans for moving this 45-day bill so quickly.
“We are on the brink of a government shutdown. And at the 11th hour legislation is dropped on the American people. And we’re told that you have 5 or 10 minutes to evaluate legislation that is more than 70 pages long and expected to simply trust the word of our extreme MAGA Republican colleagues.”
“We’re working through evaluating that legislation.”