House GOP Blocks Vote On Re-opening Government

Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, meets with reporters, taking questions on immigration, student loans, and GOP-led efforts to stop President Barack Obama's signature health care law, on Capitol Hill in Wash... Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, meets with reporters, taking questions on immigration, student loans, and GOP-led efforts to stop President Barack Obama's signature health care law, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, July 18, 2013. The House of Representatives passed measures last night to delay the individual and employer mandates of the Affordable Care Act, known popularly as "Obamacare." It's the 38th time the GOP majority has tried to eliminate, defund or scale back the program since Republicans took control of the House in January 2011. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) MORE LESS
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The House rejected Wednesday an effort by House Democrats to put a clean temporary spending bill on the floor, closing one opportunity to re-open the federal government.

The complicated process went like this. House Republicans proposed a partial spending bill to fund the National Parks Service. House Democrats moved to replace that bill with the Senate-passed spending bill that would fund the government as a whole.

House Republican leadership rejected the motion. House Democrats appealed the rejection. House Republicans moved to block the appeal, and the House then voted 230-194, largely along party lines, to block the appeal.

If the House had allowed the appeal, there might have been a chance for the Senate spending bill to come to the floor for a vote Wednesday evening. The expectation is that the Senate bill would be approved if put up for a vote, with moderate Republicans joining Democrats to pass it, ending the government shutdown.

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