The House on Friday could debate legislation to temporarily restore funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration as the federal government remains partially shut down amid partisan gridlock over a U.S. budget.
House Republicans have prepared multiple bills to fund until Dec. 15 politically popular portions of the federal budget, including the National Nuclear Security Administration, national intelligence activities and border security.
It was not clear on Thursday precisely if and when the GOP-controlled House could vote on these measures. However, the office of Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) said the vote on the NNSA measure could hit the House floor on Friday.
Thornberry's Texas district includes the Pantex nuclear weapons plant, which receives NNSA funding. Pantex has been instructed by the Energy Department's nuclear-weapons branch to begin preparing for a temporary shutdown of plant operations, while maintaining security, the congressman said Thursday in a statement.
"There is no reason whatsoever to instruct people who are essential to the security of our country, like workers at Pantex, not to show up to work," Thornberry said.
In addition to the Pantex facility, the NNSA-funded Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories and Y-12 National Security Complex are facing partial shutdowns.
House Republicans have tried to advance multiple additional budget measures that call for continue funding at fiscal 2013 levels through Dec. 15 for politically sensitive and popular federal programs, including the National Institutes of Health. The Democrat-led Senate has not approved them, and the White has threatened to veto such piecemeal spending proposals.
Obama, though, did on Sept. 30 sign in to law the Pay Our Military Act, which keeps uniformed military on the job.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/global-security-newswire/nnsa-funding-bill-floated-in-house-20131010
Comments
If republicans were in charge, and democrats attached single-payer healthcare, elimination of guns, or whatever other liberal dreams to debt ceiling/gov close down...you would see this far differently.
This republican tactic is a terrible precedent and dems are right to stand up to it, for all future presidents - dem or repub.
This entire thing is about Ted Cruz's ego, he's destroying my party in the process.
Republicans should have made this a fight about the budget, not passed law like Obamacare. And never should have brought the debt ceiling into it. That should be sacrosanct.
As republicans we need to focus on fiscal matters and make that clear to the american people. If we had, we could have won the senate, and then went to work on Obamacare (which would have been imploding on itself by then).
Ted Cruz and these tea party idiots are setting the republican cause back significantly.
They are all terrorists in my book, trying to bring this country down. I have to wonder if these guys on capital hill are working for the Chinese or Russians or N. Koreans.
What would they do different if they were working for an unfriendly foreign government bent on destroying the US?
These men are all defying our constitution and as such they are traitors to the United States and the American People.
Al Qaeda leaders and Kim Jong-un must be laughing their heads off. I don't think they together could do more damage to our way of life than these so called leaders are.
Can we charge members of Congress as traitors? What would it take?
This republican tactic is a terrible precedent...
October 14, 2013 at 10:07 AM
You mean like the Dems wanting to remove the sequester caps ("passed law")?
And it is certainly not a "precedent." In 1973, Ted Kennedy and Walter Mondale tried to attach campaign finance reform to the debt ceiling hike. This type of leveraging has been tried, by both parties, 27 times since 1978. Do a little research, instead of believing what Obama spoon-feeds you.
October 14, 2013 at 4:26 PM
What, you don't know how to use Google?? Try searching "historical debt limit fight."
October 15, 2013 at 5:32 AM
see how much your corporate masters REALLY give a &%$# about you.....
October 15, 2013 at 12:35 PM
Oh, please... Will you two wing-nuts take it somewhere else? There are adults trying to converse here.