By LISA MASCARO and STEPHEN GROVES
WASHINGTON — Congress is rushing headlong into crisis mode Tuesday with a government shutdown days away, as Speaker Kevin McCarthy faces an insurgency from hard-right Republicans eager to slash spending even if it means halting pay for the military and curtailing federal services for millions of Americans.
There’s no clear path ahead as lawmakers return with tensions high and options limited. The House is expected to launch an evening vote on a package of bills to fund parts of the government, but it’s not at all clear that McCarthy has the support needed as holdouts demand steeper spending cuts.
“It’s easy,” McCarthy quipped Tuesday when asked about keeping the government open.
But with just five days to go before Saturday’s deadline, McCarthy is reviving his plan for a stopgap measure to prevent a federal shutdown that was already rejected outright by a handful of hard-right Republicans who say they will never vote for it, denying him a majority.
The right flank in the House has seized control — small in numbers but with outsized influence and egged on by former President Donald Trump, the party’s front-runner to confront President Joe Biden in the 2024 election, who is encouraging them to “shut it down.”
Meanwhile, the Senate, trying to stave off a federal closure, is preparing its own bipartisan plan for a stopgap measure to keep offices funded in the days before Saturday’s deadline.
But the Senate’s effort has become tangled over tacking on additional funds for Ukraine in its war against Russia. While a vast majority from both parties in Congress supports the war effort, standing ready to approve supplemental funds Biden has requested for Ukraine, a small yet growing number of Republicans in both the House and the Senate oppose spending more money helping Ukraine.
Against the mounting chaos, Biden warned the Republican conservatives off their hard-line tactics, saying funding the federal…
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