McCarthy Aims for 8% Spending Cut, Border Wall in Bid to Avoid Gov't Shutdown

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has offered a plan to congressional Republicans to avoid a government shutdown that would cut overall spending by 1% of current levels for 31 days. 

Bloomberg reports the speaker wants a total 8% spending cut for domestic agencies and the resumption of construction of the border wall.

McCarthy discussed the plan with Republicans in a conference call Sunday night.  He told them they should be prepared to stay through this weekend to pass a stopgap measure, called a continuing resolution, that would keep government offices open past the Sept. 30 deadline. But many are already bracing for the heavy political fallout of a federal shutdown.

A handful of Republicans took to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, shortly after the Sunday call to criticize even the package with spending cuts and border measures as woefully insufficient.

The plan includes a demand to reduce the ability of migrants to claim asylum in the U.S., which is not likely to pass the Democratic majority Senate. 

The measure doesn't contain emergency Ukraine war funds or disaster aid including relief for victims of Maui wildfires and a Florida hurricane requested by the Biden administration.

A vote on the proposed one-month funding bill is planned for Thursday. It was negotiated between the House Freedom Caucus and a group known as the Main Street Caucus. 

Heritage Action Acting Executive Director Ryan Walker issued a statement calling the short-term continuing resolution, "an important step in the right direction."

"The short-term spending deal put forth by members of the House Freedom Caucus and Main Street Caucus is an important step forward in the fight to secure the border and restore fiscal sanity in Washington. Combining a meaningful 8% cut to non-defense discretionary spending with nearly all of the provisions from the House-passed H.R. 2 border security package, this deal achieves major policy victories while giving conservatives the best possible negotiating position for long-term spending cuts and reforms," the statement said. 

"There's quite a few people that are against it right now," said Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK), the leader of the Republican Study Committee, the largest conservative faction in the House, adding that he was still considering the proposal and that a lot of work was happening "behind the scenes" to get the votes to pass it.

"I want to make sure we don't shut down," McCarthy said on Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures. "I don't think that is a win for the American public and I definitely believe it'll make our hand weaker if we shut down."

He told reporters Monday that Republicans were still putting forward "a lot of good ideas."

Speaker Says Hunter Biden Will Be Subpoenaed

McCarthy also said House Republicans will subpoena Hunter Biden at some point when the timing is right. 

He told Fox they're following the facts, and that "it looks like a culture of corruption" in the Biden family.

"I think we should have the bank statements to actually know where did the money go, so you would know the questions to ask Hunter Biden. To just subpoena Hunter Biden because you want to fundraise, or you want to do something… that's not how we're going to run an investigation," McCarthy said. 

"I think we're showing the American public how we follow the Constitution. An impeachment inquiry is simply the ability that gives the Congress the strength to get the answers to the questions. All this information we have now found we never would have known had not the Republicans taken the majority," he told Fox News. 

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