Former Biden aide claims ‘dysfunction’ of House GOP to blame for spending fight

President Biden’s former chief of staff Ron Klain pinned the blame for a looming government shutdown squarely on the House GOP amid continued infighting over budget cuts and border policy, while the Senate proposed its own bipartisan funding bill Tuesday.

“You always hear people in Washington saying ‘I wish there was more bipartisanship.’ Well in fact there is a bipartisan agreement between President Biden and the Senate, which passed a key vote tonight,” Klain said in an MSNBC interview Tuesday.

The Senate bill would provide temporary funding for the government along with billions to support the war in Ukraine and additional disaster relief funds. 

“There’s overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate. The problem isn’t Democrats and Republicans can’t get along, it’s House Republicans can’t get along,” he said. “President Biden cut a deal with them about government spending when he averted the debt crisis, and now the Republicans in the House don’t want to stick to the deal they made, they want to start all over again and close the government down.” 

A group of conservative Republicans have blocked attempts by Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to pass spending measures with the GOP majority, while some far-right members threaten to seek to remove him if he works with Democrats to pass a CR.

The dynamics have brought the House to a standstill with just days to go before the government runs out of funds at the end of the month. McCarthy said Wednesday that he will not allow a vote on the Senate measure, according to his colleagues.

“This just shows the dysfunction of the House Republican caucus,” Klain said. “And on the other hand you can see that Democrats and Republicans in the Senate can work together to make progress. It’s a shame to see what’s going on in the House right now.”

Much of the recent debate in the House GOP has been over cutting Ukraine war funding and increasing funding for border enforcement, both conservative priorities.