October 01, 2013

The Senate has rejected the House's latest short-term government funding deal, setting up a government shutdown at 04:00 GMT. 

Tuesday, October 1 

04:56 GMT:

GMT 04:44: The US government shutdown will cost the country's economy at least $300 million a day, according to analysts at IHS Inc.

GMT 04:20: The White House's budget office is now informing federal agencies about the government shutdown on Tuesday. Hundreds of thousands of US workers will be affected, as well as millions of Americans who rely on federal services. 

GMT 04:05: Majority Leader Harry Reid has announced a Senate recess until 13:30 GMT Tuesday.

GMT 04:00: The House and Senate could not come to a deal to fund federal agencies ahead of the 04:00 GMT deadline, effectively beginning the first shutdown of the US government in 17 years. 
The Office of Management and Budget has ordered federal agencies to "now execute plans for an orderly shutdown due to the absence of appropriations.”

GMT 03:45: House minority leader Nancy Pelosi addressed reporters at a press conference, calling the inability to pass a continuing resolution to fund government the “Tea Party government shutdown.” 
"I'd like to say good evening," said Pelosi, "but it isn't a very good one." 
Earlier on Monday Rep. Pelosi had offered a “compromise” with Republican Speaker John Boehner to secure the needed Democrat votes to pass a bill that set spending at sequestration levels, a proposition opposed by many in her caucus, including Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).

GMT 03:03: Senator Reid called a Republican House plan to call for a conference “subterfuge” and refused such a motion until the GOP presented a “clean” continuing resolution, meaning a bill to fund government without any modifications calling for changes to Obamacare. 
According to The Hill, a conference committee would allow “members of both chambers to meet face to face to decide how to move forward on a spending bill, instead of the ‘ping-pong’ back and forth that has taken several days and yielded nothing.”

GMT 02:49: Senior Republican John McCain indicated that House Republicans should present a clean bill to continue funding government, telling reporters that "Republicans will be perceived as blocking and as shutting down the government." 

"We can't win," McCain said to press ahead of a likely government shutdown. A clean continuing resolution to fund government "will happen sooner or later" added McCain.

GMT 02:40: The Washington Post reports House Republicans will not attempt to pass any more bills to fund federal agencies ahead of the 04:00 GMT deadline, marking the first government shutdown since 1996. 

GMT 02:20: President Obama signed legislation on Monday evening to ensure that military personnel would continue to receive pay during a government shutdown.  

GMT 02:05: The House was thought to be working on a fourth CR to present to the Senate prior to the midnight shutdown deadline.

GMT 01:41: The US Senate has voted down the House Continuing Resolution that proposed to keep the government open while delaying the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate implementation, along with eliminating health insurance subsidies for Congress members and their members of staff. 

The House passed the CR earlier Monday evening by a vote of 228-201 demanding a one-year delay in the health care law’s mandate that individuals buy health insurance. The Senate rejected that House motion by 54-46 votes

The continuing resolution -- defeated just hours before the midnight deadline to pass a short-term budget bill -- also denied the law’s federal subsidies to members of Congress, Capitol Hill staff, executive branch appointees, White House staff, the president and the vice president, who have to enter the law’s insurance exchanges instead. 

Monday, September 30 

GMT 23:15: In a procedural vote, the House passed by a margin of 225-204 a rule to allow the House to skip normal protocol and advance its Continuing Resolution spending bill for a vote that includes measures that strip certain provisions of the federal health care law. 

GMT 21:08: President Barack Obama chastised House Republicans for letting opposition to the Affordable Care Act block a government funding bill as congressional inaction in the face a government shutdown continued. 

“The idea of putting the American people’s hard-earned progress at risk is the height of irresponsibility and doesn’t have to happen,” he said. “Let me repeat that: It does not have to happen. All of this is entirely preventable.”

http://rt.com/usa/government-shutdown-live-update-564/