House to vote on stopgap U.S. funding bill

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WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- The House will "hopefully" approve a bill the Senate passed to fund the government for 6 1/2 more weeks, said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va.

"I'm looking forward to hopefully having a successful vote on that," Cantor told reporters Monday, one day before the scheduled vote. "Hopefully we can avoid any kind of shutdown talk and get it done."

Despite Cantor's hope, some Democrats and Republicans are likely to vote against the bill -- Democrats because they say it cuts too much from the budget and Republicans because they say it cuts too little, The Washington Post said.

The Senate passed the stopgap funding bill 79-12 Sept. 26. The House then passed a 96-hour version of it Friday in a pro forma vote because the House was officially on recess for the Jewish New Year.

The pro forma vote funded the government for four days starting Saturday, when the new fiscal year began. That in turn set the stage for the entire House to vote on the bill Tuesday, funding the government until Nov. 18.

Cantor said he hoped there wouldn't be any further temporary short-term funding measures after Nov. 18, indicating he wanted the budget debate for the current fiscal year to end by then. He said President Barack Obama's jobs bill -- which the president was to tout Tuesday at a community college in Mesquite, Texas -- was dead in the House.

Cantor said Republicans would pick out pieces they agreed with but would not pass the entire package.

"This all-or-nothing approach is unreasonable," Cantor said. "Instead of continuing to maintain this sort of campaign posture, let's do something to work together."

White House spokesman Jay Carney said lawmakers who don't support the entire jobs bill have been "very unclear about why" they don't. He called on them to explain their reasons, "not just privately, but publicly to your constituents."

He said the entire bill had "overwhelming public support."

If Congress passes only parts of the bill, Obama would sign them, "provided that they're paid for in an acceptable and fair way," and then "turn around and demand the rest of the bill" be passed, Carney said.