ANALYSIS: Will Democrats Utilize Mechanism to Go Around McCarthy and Prevent a Government Shutdown?

Democrats who spoke to The Epoch Times did not rule out using the discharge petition, which allows 218 House members, a majority, to force a vote on legislation, given that the GOP controls the lower congressional chamber, albeit by a slim majority.

Reps. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said they would support a discharge petition.

Related Stories

“I think we should look at everything in our toolbox to not have a government shutdown because that will crash the economy [and] hurt the American people,” said Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus.

Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.), following votes on Sept. 12, said that a member of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee—which assigns members to their various committees and advises conference heads on policy—had brought up during a meeting that day the possibility of using a discharge petition.

Mr. Cartwright did not remember which member made the suggestion.

“There’s some question about whether that’s proper form,” he said. “You may have to go take an extra step and introduce something in the House. But we’re looking at that.”

The discharge petition possibility “was one of many, many topics we touched on,” he said.

No Consensus Yet

However, the discussion appeared to not pick up steam as House Democrats have yet to decide whether to use a discharge petition to get through government funding legislation ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline.

“We have not had a discussion about a motion to discharge with respect to anything connected to funding the government,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).

“We have a responsibility to fund the government. There was an agreement that was reached that House Republicans negotiated with President Biden,” he continued, referring to the debt ceiling deal a few months ago. “So we shouldn’t even be in this situation of a possible government shutdown. But that tells you how extreme the MAGA Republicans are in the House right now.”

Months ago, all House Democrats signed onto a discharge petition that would have raised the debt ceiling without conditions. No Republicans signed onto it.

While there are “limitations” to doing a discharge petition, said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), as “that imperils a lot of the community projects that a lot of communities really need” and, therefore, “there’s a trade off there,” at the end of the day, “we have to keep every option open in terms of what’s possible.”

Some Democrats in Favor

Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) remarked that doing a discharge petition “would be wise.”

“I think when there’s a whole lot of … issues that tie us up and we’re unable to break a logjam, a discharge petition is the way to go,” she said.

“That could be on the table,” said Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.).

Rep. Nikema Williams (D-Ga.) also commented.

“I think we should make sure that we’re doing everything that we can to keep our government open. We’re here to do a job. We need to fund our government,” Ms. Williams said. “And the majority party needs to step up and stop bickering amongst themselves and lead.”

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) said it is up to House Democrat leadership, which includes Mr. Jeffries, to decide whether there will be a discharge petition.

“If House Democratic leadership thinks that that’s the only option that we have, then we’ll deploy it,” she said.

Ms. Crockett remarked that a discharge petition could expose vulnerable House Republicans ahead of the 2024 election.

A member of House Democrat leadership, Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), the chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said his conference is “aware of a lot of different options,” though the goal is to fund the government by the Sept. 30 deadline.

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) said he doesn’t know if it would make any difference to use a discharge petition.

“I’d certainly sign it,” he said. “We’ve got to do whatever we can do. But, you know, we wouldn’t get the votes.”

Slim Republican Majority

With the departure of Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) on Sept. 15, the GOP can only afford to lose three of its members in votes. Democrats would only need five Republicans to force a vote on any bills, let alone ones to fund the government.

The GOP is set to get back its four-vote margin in November when Celeste Maloy is expected to win the general election in Utah’s heavily-Republican 2nd Congressional District, thereby giving Mr. McCarthy slight breathing room if the appropriations fight extends into the holidays.

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), the ranking member of the House Rules Committee that clears bills to go to the House floor, echoed Mr. Cohen. He said there does not seem to be anyone on the other side of the aisle willing to join Democrats in getting something done.

He said the buck stops with Mr. McCarthy.

“The responsibility to make this place work is with the speaker of the House. They are the majority party here,” said Mr. McGovern.

“Up to this point, he’s been unwilling to do it,” he said.

But not all Democrats seem to be on board with discharging government funding legislation.

“I am not prepared to advocate that at this point. And I think we ought to sit down and watch the Republicans be unable to agree with each other,” said Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.). “I don’t know that we need to help them along. I think they’re doing a pretty good job of messing it up themselves.”

Mr. Blumenauer added, regarding a possible discharge petition, “I don’t know that that’s the most productive route. We ought to just have them do their job.”

Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) said she hasn’t “given any thought to that yet.”

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) said the focus right now is to avert a government shutdown. “That’s the one thing that we’re focused on more than anything else,” he said.

And Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) said Republicans are in control of the House and that “their dysfunction is remarkable and damaging, and they ought to get their act in order so that we can actually govern.”

GOP Not Concerned

Mr. McCarthy does not seem worried about the possibility of Democrats going around him via the discharge petition mechanism in order to fund the government.

“I think the best way to do this is that we continue the process through, finish our bills, going to conference,” he said in response to a question from The Epoch Times.

The House would go into conference with the Senate to come up with one bill to pass both chambers of Congress.

And, in comments to The Epoch Times, Mr. McCarthy’s fellow Republicans do not feel concerned that Democrats could try to use a discharge petition to push forth government funding legislation.

“They could do whatever political game they want to,” said Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.). “I think that there are Republicans here who do not want to see a shutdown that are going to work together to get something across the finish line.”

The last time a discharge petition was successful was in 2015 when Congress reauthorized the Export-Import Bank, an institution decried by critics for cronyism.

“I don’t believe that we use the discharge petition as much as we should in this institution,” said Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.).

When told it would only take a handful of Republicans to join all 212 Democrats, Mr. Foster replied, “That’s true of many pieces of worthy legislation that haven’t come to a vote in this institution in the last 20 years.”