Cantor: House sits until budget resolved

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said on Thursday that the House would be in session Friday, and possibly over the weekend, in order to deal with the FY 2011 budget impasse.

“We will not leave town until we have fulfilled our obligation to cut spending, to begin getting our fiscal house in order, and to keep the government functioning,” Cantor said to cheers from Republicans.

{mosads}”At this point, it is too early to tell whether the House will need to be in session this weekend,” he added. “In the case of a lapse in appropriations, however, I fully expect the House to meet. Therefore, members should keep their schedules for this weekend as flexible as possible.”

Cantor also rejected a request from House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) to consider a weeklong spending extension that makes no changes, in order to give the two parties more time to negotiate.

“I would say to the gentleman, no,” Cantor said to more GOP cheering. “We don’t accept the status quo.”

Cantor rejected the idea that H.R. 1363 has no chance of passage. Hoyer pointed out that the White House on Thursday morning threatened to veto it, and added “this resolution, in my view, will not pass.”

But Cantor ignored this. “We’re trying to do the business of the American people,” he said. “We don’t want to shut down government, we don’t want status quo, we don’t want to bankrupt this nation.”

Cantor said the House would convene at 10 a.m. Friday, and will take up legislative business at noon. He said H.J.Res. 37, a resolution disapproving of the Federal Communications Commission’s regulation of the Internet, would likely be taken up on Friday.