1 00:00:01,966 --> 00:00:05,000 JOHN YANG: Good evening, I'm John Yang. On Capitol Hill lawmakers are taking 11th hour 2 00:00:07,300 --> 00:00:10,066 efforts to avoid a government shutdown at midnight tonight, right down to the wire. This afternoon, 3 00:00:12,666 --> 00:00:15,133 the House overwhelmingly passed a 45-day temporary spending bill after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, 4 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:21,266 unable to overcome disagreements in his own party turned to House Democrats for help. 5 00:00:21,266 --> 00:00:25,466 In the more Democrats voted for the bill than Republicans. The measure includes the 6 00:00:25,466 --> 00:00:30,466 $16 billion of disaster relief money that President Biden wants, but not the aid for 7 00:00:32,600 --> 00:00:35,766 Ukraine that many House Republicans don't want. But that's only half of what's needed to avoid a 8 00:00:35,766 --> 00:00:40,733 shutdown. The Senate has to approve the bill too. And that could come as soon as tonight. 9 00:00:42,700 --> 00:00:45,966 After the House vote, McCarthy acknowledged that hardline Republicans could try to remove 10 00:00:45,966 --> 00:00:50,133 him from the speakership because he reached out to Democrats for help. 11 00:00:50,133 --> 00:00:52,266 REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY, Speaker of the House: When are you guys going to get 12 00:00:52,266 --> 00:00:56,900 over that it's all right that you put America first. That's all right if Republicans and 13 00:00:58,933 --> 00:01:01,933 Democrats joined together to do what is right? If somebody wants to make a motion against me, 14 00:01:03,100 --> 00:01:07,600 bring it. There has to be an adult in the room. 15 00:01:09,566 --> 00:01:13,500 JOHN YANG: It has been a hectic and chaotic day on Capitol Hill. And as always, 16 00:01:13,500 --> 00:01:18,066 Congressional Correspondent Lisa Desjardins has been following all of it for us. Lisa, 17 00:01:18,066 --> 00:01:21,100 just 24 hours ago, it looked like a shutdown was inevitable. 18 00:01:21,100 --> 00:01:23,133 LISA DESJARDINS: Right. 19 00:01:23,133 --> 00:01:26,133 JOHN YANG: And now here we are one step away, a Senate vote away from putting it off. 20 00:01:26,133 --> 00:01:28,166 LISA DESJARDINS: Right. JOHN YANG: What happened? 21 00:01:28,166 --> 00:01:30,800 LISA DESJARDINS: Yeah. He said it would take a legislative miracle and our way we got one, 22 00:01:30,800 --> 00:01:35,066 it also needed a complete collapse of the House Republican Party, 23 00:01:35,066 --> 00:01:39,500 them realizing that they really did not have a plan at all, and that the only way out was 24 00:01:39,500 --> 00:01:44,500 either to go deeper in and cause a lengthy shutdown, or to have a simple continuing 25 00:01:46,433 --> 00:01:49,900 resolution to fund government that they thought would pass with many Democrats. 26 00:01:49,900 --> 00:01:52,666 JOHN YANG: You just heard the Speaker say, bring it on, about a motion, 27 00:01:52,666 --> 00:01:57,633 what's called a motion to vacate, vacate the speakership. Do you think is that going to happen? 28 00:01:59,733 --> 00:02:02,166 LISA DESJARDINS: I think it will. I don't know when. He is calling what he thinks is 29 00:02:02,166 --> 00:02:06,833 the bluff of those hardliners who oppose him. But it doesn't matter to them if they win or not. They 30 00:02:09,300 --> 00:02:12,866 have a point to make. They really do object to the Speaker. They have the ability, just single member 31 00:02:14,866 --> 00:02:18,033 to try and motion to vacate him. And if they do that, even if the vast majority of Republicans 32 00:02:18,033 --> 00:02:23,033 support Speaker McCarthy, the question is up to Democrats, because you need a majority of the 33 00:02:25,600 --> 00:02:28,266 House to elect a speaker. So Democrats can then sort of maneuver, maybe try and get something out 34 00:02:30,300 --> 00:02:34,400 for Speaker McCarthy to help him keep his job. It leads to a lot of other different plotlines. 35 00:02:35,766 --> 00:02:37,766 JOHN YANG: Now, what's the outlook of the Senate right now? 36 00:02:37,766 --> 00:02:41,466 LISA DESJARDINS: It looks good. Senators want to pass this deal. It's a question of when, 37 00:02:41,466 --> 00:02:46,133 how fast they can move? Senate not known for its exceeding speed. But tonight, 38 00:02:46,133 --> 00:02:50,100 they want to avoid this deadline. They don't want to shut down, even a Sunday one. As we 39 00:02:50,100 --> 00:02:55,066 speak right now they are asking every senator if they will object to speeding this up. And 40 00:02:57,066 --> 00:02:59,366 if in fact all senators give the green light we could have a vote within minutes or hours. 41 00:02:59,366 --> 00:03:02,633 JOHN YANG: So if the Senate goes along, it's a 45-day reprieve, 42 00:03:02,633 --> 00:03:06,800 what has to happen or what -- what they -- what do they want to happen in that 45 days? 43 00:03:06,800 --> 00:03:09,666 LISA DESJARDINS: So this is part of what this entire debate has been about, 44 00:03:09,666 --> 00:03:14,666 spending in general. In the house, they would like to pass all 12 appropriations bills. So far, 45 00:03:16,733 --> 00:03:20,300 they've passed five of them. So they still have a lot of work ahead of them. It takes 46 00:03:20,300 --> 00:03:24,933 a long time to get 400 members to debate all these appropriations bills, especially 47 00:03:24,933 --> 00:03:29,000 some of the more controversial ones that are ahead. They want to use that time to do that. 48 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:33,133 And also, by the way, negotiate those bills with the Senate. We're not just 49 00:03:33,133 --> 00:03:37,300 talking dollars and the size of government, which in of itself is a very difficult debate, 50 00:03:37,300 --> 00:03:41,866 but also policy. These bills contain things about abortion, should abortion pills be 51 00:03:41,866 --> 00:03:46,866 allowed to be sold in the mail, for example. Those are intractable longtime debates that may 52 00:03:48,866 --> 00:03:52,233 take more than 45 days as well. But now they've got another 45 days to try and figure it out. 53 00:03:54,300 --> 00:03:57,100 JOHN YANG: What does this -- this past 24 hours tell us about the House Republicans, 54 00:03:57,100 --> 00:03:59,700 about the state of the House Republican Party? 55 00:03:59,700 --> 00:04:04,266 LISA DESJARDINS: I think that it is what we expected. I think that we knew that this was 56 00:04:04,266 --> 00:04:09,266 a body that operates on instinct and not on plan. There is not really strategy. They have 57 00:04:12,266 --> 00:04:17,100 no problems with sort of internal debates that could even put the entire nation and government 58 00:04:17,100 --> 00:04:22,100 funding at risk. But it also tells us a lot about Kevin McCarthy. He is a Speaker who lives day by 59 00:04:24,566 --> 00:04:27,300 day. He is confident in his ability to make it through even the toughest test. But he doesn't 60 00:04:29,866 --> 00:04:32,300 have a plan for the next one. He takes them on one at a time, which means, John, you and I will be 61 00:04:32,300 --> 00:04:37,033 sitting here again, talking about similar dynamics ahead maybe even this week with the Speaker. 62 00:04:38,433 --> 00:04:40,033 JOHN YANG: Let's remind people what the alternative was, 63 00:04:40,033 --> 00:04:42,066 if they -- if the House, if the Senate, if they hadn't done this, 64 00:04:42,066 --> 00:04:45,400 what the alternative would have been and also what we'll be facing in 45 days? 65 00:04:45,400 --> 00:04:47,866 LISA DESJARDINS: Right. Well, the alternative they hadn't done this, we would have had a government 66 00:04:47,866 --> 00:04:51,800 shutdown starting tonight. That's 2 million federal workers, another 4 million federal 67 00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:56,800 contractors, many of whom would have been sent home, it could have gone long. And that would have 68 00:04:59,333 --> 00:05:01,866 meant maybe no paychecks from any of those people. Some services would have stopped like WIC, the 69 00:05:01,866 --> 00:05:06,200 Program for Women, Infants, and Children. And -- and also Moody's Analytics and others could have 70 00:05:08,766 --> 00:05:11,500 downgraded our credit. So a lot was at stake and now we have to kind of see the next steps. Because 71 00:05:13,500 --> 00:05:18,000 all that is still hanging in the balance again, and this time getting closer to Thanksgiving. 72 00:05:19,200 --> 00:05:20,000 JOHN YANG: Never a dull moment, Lisa Desjardins. 73 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:20,933 LISA DESJARDINS: I know. 74 00:05:20,933 --> 00:05:21,866 JOHN YANG: Thank you very much. 75 00:05:21,866 --> 00:05:22,033 LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.