House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (left) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (center), pictured with Rep. Eric Swalwell, are threatening to vote against a short-term bill to keep the government open.
House Democrats are threatening to vote against a short-term bill to keep the government open if Republicans force an Obamacare repeal vote in the next few days.
Democrats are furious that House Republicans are asking them to vote on a short-term funding measure to keep the government open in order to buy them time to find a bipartisan compromise, while at the same time moving to rush through a bill to repeal Obamacare that could give President Trump a major legislative victory ahead of his 100th day in office.
"If Republicans announce their intention to bring their harmful TrumpCare bill to the House Floor tomorrow or Saturday, I will oppose a one-week Continuing Resolution and will advise House Democrats to oppose it as well," House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said in a Thursday statement. "If Republicans pursue this partisan path of forcing Americans to pay more for less and destabilizing our county's health care system without even knowing how much their bill will cost Republicans should be prepared to pass a one-week Continuing Resolution on their own."
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) relayed the same message to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) Thursday morning.
"Yeah she said something to me about that," Ryan said Thursday. "I would be shocked that they would want to see a government shutdown, that the Democrats would want to do that."
House Speaker Paul Ryan said he was shocked that the Democrats would want to see a government shutdown.
Funding for the government runs out after midnight Friday, and lawmakers in both parties have been pushing hard to find an agreement to avoid a shutdown. That's looked increasingly likely in recent days as Trump has backed off his insistence for border wall funding, but the House Democrats' threat could throw a wrench in plans to pass a short-term bill so party leaders can finish an agreement.
Still, it's unclear whether rank-and-file Democrats will go along - and Republicans might be able to round up enough votes in the House to push the funding bill through. The real question is in the Senate, where some Democratic support is definitely needed - and Senate Democrats didn't sound ready to back up their House colleagues on their threat.
"We're not up to that yet," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters Thursday afternoon.