White House bashes Greene over threat to not fund government without impeachment inquiry

The White House on Thursday bashed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) for warning that she won’t vote to fund the government if Congress doesn’t hold a vote on an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, calling her the “hardcore fringe” of the Republican Party.

“The last thing the American people deserve is for extreme House members to trigger a government shutdown that hurts our economy, undermines our disaster preparedness, and forces our troops to work without guaranteed pay,” spokesperson Andrew Bates said. 

Greene announced Thursday that she would not vote to fund the government and avoid a shutdown if the House doesn’t vote to open the impeachment inquiry. She also put other conditions on her vote, including ending funding for the war in Ukraine, eliminating funding for what she called the “weaponization” of government and eliminating coronavirus-related mandates.

“The House Republicans responsible for keeping the government open already made a promise to the American public about government funding, and it would be a shame for them to break their word and fail the country because they caved to the hardcore fringe of their party in prioritizing a baseless impeachment stunt over high stakes needs Americans care about deeply – like fighting fentanyl trafficking, protecting our national security, and funding [the Federal Emergency Management Agency],” Bates said.

Biden on Thursday called for a short-term continuing resolution, or a CR, which Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has also said will be necessary to fund the government beyond Sept. 30. But, some hard-line Republicans are embracing the possibility of a shutdown and brushing off concerns over the fast-approaching deadline.

At the same time, McCarthy is increasingly signaling his intent to launch an impeachment inquiry when the House returns in September.

The House has cleared just one of 12 regular appropriations bills, while the Senate has not cleared any. The House will be in session for just 11 legislative days until the end of fiscal 2023.

Biden has requested Congress approve roughly $40 billion in supplemental spending, which includes $24 billion in military, financial and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine. 

He has also requested $12 billion in supplemental funds to ensure the Federal Emergency Management Agency has enough money to respond to natural disasters, as well as to handle future disasters, asks that have become more pressing in the wake of the Maui wildfires and Hurricane Idalia.

Additionally, as the Washington Post first reported, the new funding requests include an additional $1.4 billion to fund nutritional aid programs for low-income families, as well as $1.9 billion for the Office of Refugee Resettlement to handle thousands of new arrivals from Haiti and Cuba.