Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid questioned Monday whether House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell could honor their pledges on avoiding a second government shutdown,
Politico reported.
"We've heard there are going to be no government shutdowns from the leaders, but members of their caucuses are really saying some very scary things," Reid said.
"So the question is whether the Republican leaders will be able to stand up to the radical forces within their own party."
He continued, "It's a large number of members of the Republican caucus over here and of course the Republican caucus in the House. Can these Republican leaders stand up to these people who are intent on holding our government hostage?"
Conservatives have warned they would
use a government funding bill as leverage against President Barack Obama's plans to take executive action on immigration. Obama is demanding the House take up on a bipartisan immigration bill passed by the Senate.
Boehner and McConnell have been keen to reach a budget deal that would remove any threat of a shutdown and to establish a new tone for running Congress next year, Politico reported.
Reid pointed out that Republican presidents, including George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush, have used executive action to change immigration policy.
"For Republicans to take issue with President Obama for doing this same thing is hypocritical," he said, according to Politico.
If a funding bill to carry the government through next September can't be achieved, as congressional leaders from both parties want, then a stop-gap measure may be needed.
Going that route would keep tensions between Capitol Hill and the White House simmering and create an atmosphere Republican leaders had hoped to avoid, Politico reported.
The
Huffington Post reported that Reid asked Obama to delay any announcement on immigration until Congress passes the next budget bill.
But
Bloomberg reports Reid telling Obama not to be inhibited by GOP threats of a government shutdown.
The government will run out of spending authority on Dec. 11 unless an agreement is reached.
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