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The White House is getting ready to communicate with the public and with federal workers in the event that Congress fails to reach a last-second agreement to keep the government funded beyond Saturday night, President Biden’s chief of staff Jeff Zients told NPR.
But it doesn’t seem likely that Biden will be communicating face-to-face with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy about the funding impasse in the immediate future.
“There’s no need for a meeting right now. The meeting that has to take place is in the House of Representatives — where House Republicans come together and fund the government,” Zients said in an exclusive interview.
McCarthy said on Tuesday that he thought it would be “very important” to have a meeting with Biden to discuss government funding and border policies. Zients said White House teams are in regular contact with their counterparts on the Hill, including McCarthy.
Zients says there’s nothing easy about a government shutdown
Congress is inching closer to a shutdown. The Senate is moving forward with a short-term bipartisan bill to fund the government through November 17 and provide aid to Ukraine and for disasters in the United States. But House Republicans have rejected that plan and are moving ahead with their own approach, which pairs spending cuts with harsher immigration policies.
Speaking just after getting off a Zoom meeting with Cabinet secretaries to talk through shutdown plans – and just before Biden called to check in from Air Force One – Zients said he was concerned about the impact a shutdown would have on 1.3 million active troops and air traffic controllers, who will go without paychecks. He also noted FEMA recovery projects and small business loans would stall.
“There’s nothing easy here — so we’ll be prepared, but there’s nothing one can do if the government shuts down to avoid these bad consequences,” Zients said.
Zients said he did not expect a shutdown to hurt the economy – at least in the short term. “It’s never a good time for the government to shut down. But we believe the economy is strong, and as long as House Republicans do their job, the economy will be fine and the government will function,” he said.
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