Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress remain divided over a budget, hours away from potentially the first US government shutdown in 15 years.
Democratic leaders say Republicans are refusing to accept federal funding for Planned Parenthood. Republicans say the dividing issue is spending.
Democrats said on Friday they agreed to cut $38 billion in federal spending this year and resolved dozens of policy directives sought by Republicans. The only remaining point was Republicans’ insistence on cancelling funding for the women’s health provider Planned Parenthood, which offers abortions, said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
“The Republican House leadership have only a few hours left to look in the mirror” and “snap out of it,” Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said on the Senate floor.
House Speaker John Boehner insisted that spending was the issue.
“There’s only one reason that we do not have an agreement as of now, and that issue is spending,” said Boehner, an Ohio Republican. “We’re close to a resolution on policy issues.” He declined to take questions from reporters and didn’t mention Planned Parenthood.
More From This Section
Without an agreement on a Federal Budget to run through 2011-12, the government at midnight would begin shutting down for the first time in 15 years. About 800,000 “non-essential” federal employees would be furloughed, affecting a host of government services. National parks would close, those filing paper tax returns wouldn’t receive refunds, government permits would be unavailable, and most passport applications would go unprocessed.
CALLS FROM OBAMA
US President Barack Obama spoke separately with Boehner and Reid this morning, White House Spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement. The three met at the White House twice yesterday in an effort to resolve the budget dispute, and afterward Obama said he hoped a shutdown would be averted on Friday.
Democrats had earlier offered $33 billion in cuts for a spending bill to keep the government operating through September.
“The only thing left undone when we left last night was women’s health,” Reid told reporters at the Capitol on Friday. “We agreed on spending cuts and they’re still not happy.”
Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in an appearance on Bloomberg Television that Republicans and Democrats narrowed their differences on the size of proposed budget cuts but remain deadlocked over Republican demands on the issue of abortion rights.