Live updates: The shutdown

From David M. Drucker:

Sen. Ted Cruz during a closed-door lunch on Wednesday argued to his Republican colleagues that the campaign he led to defund Obamacare has bolstered the GOP’s political position in dealing with the government shutdown.

Republicans who attended the weekly lunch hosted by Senate conservatives confirmed that Cruz presented a poll that the Texan paid for. Cruz’ pollster, Chris Perkins, was there for a portion of the discussion to help walk members through the poll and discuss the party’s messaging strategy. Perkins is a partner with Wilson Perkins Allen, a GOP polling firm with dozens of Republican clients.

The survey’s findings mirrored other national polls: More voters blame the Republicans for the government shutdown than blame President Obama or the Democrats. But Cruz argued, based on the poll, that Republicans are in a much better position than they were during the 1995 shutdown because this impasse is defined by a disagreement over funding for the Affordable Care Act as opposed to a general disagreement over government spending.

…

– 67 percent said Obamacare was the “major reason” for the government shutdown.

– By a margin of 46 percent to 39 percent, voters blamed Republicans for the shutdown over “Obama and Democrats.” Another 19 percent blamed both sides equally.

– By a margin of 42 percent to 36 percent, independent voters blamed Republicans for the shutdown over Obama and the Democrats.

– In November 1995, 51 percent of voters blamed Republicans for the shutdown; only 28 percent blamed then-President Clinton

Chris Cox became big news on Wednesday, with a photo of him seemingly mowing the lawn at the Lincoln Memorial blazing across the Internet.

So who is he? Why, exactly, was he mowing the lawn?

Cox, a chain saw sculptor from South Carolina, said he simply wanted to make a difference.

“I figured out that I could play a…valuable role as a janitor, if you will,” Cox, 45, told The Post. “So I started cleaning up the overflowing trash cans. I bought a blower, and I’ve been blowing all of the trails, and today I cut the grass out here.”

He said he hoped to encourage people to show up at parks ready to clean and ready to help out.

“And over my dead body are we going to find trash pouring out of these trash cans,” Cox said. “At the end of the day we are the stewards of these buildings that are memorials.”

For more, read Michael Ruane’s story.

Watch Cox here:

The meeting with the House Democratic Caucus began at about 4:40 p.m., according to a pool report.

From The Reliable Source:

Bad timing for a pair of West Coast fundraisers this weekend: Headliner Michelle Obama has dropped out, causing organizers to scrap their plans.The first lady was scheduled to appear at two big-ticket events: A $32,000-per-person roundtable Friday at the Los Angeles home of “Everybody Loves Raymond” creator Philip Rosenthal (Obama was subbing for her husband, who canceled a similar party in September) benefiting the Democratic National Committee. Ditto for a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee “women’s brunch” Sunday in San Francisco (tickets up to $32,000) hosted by Nancy Pelosi, reports the Hollywood Reporter. Looks like stumping for Democratic dollars during the shutdown is considered bad form. The White House didn’t get back to us; a spokesman for Pelosi said the brunch will be rescheduled.

Why are some Republicans backing a clean continuing resolution to fund the government? In Play takes a closer look at the districts they represent for clues.

Several Washington area charities are furloughing employees, scaling back services and in some cases preparing for employee layoffs as the government shut drags on.

The Latin American Youth Center announced this week that it has furloughed more than half of its staff and reduced its programming to essential services. The furloughed staff, which includes senior leaders, will continue to work as volunteers until the shutdown ends and funding continues.

“I’m so depressed. It’s so sad,” said Lori Kaplan, president of the Latin American Youth Center.  “The center means so much to so many people, and this is hard on a lot of people.”

The Columbia Heights nonprofit, which offers youth development services to 5,000 kids each year, will stop some programs that help with job training and education. It is also in the process of piloting a new program that offers mentors who are available around the clock for troubled youth.  Kaplan said the mentors will now be part time. Services to its homeless and foster care youth will remain in operation.

Mary’s Center, a federally funded health facility in the District says it is struggling to make October payroll and to continue its services to more than 30,000 local patients. The charity which has yet to receive a $585,000 from the District’s Department of Health due on Oct. 1 for last month’s services. Those funds are now on hold until the shutdown ends.

Public funding is nearly 70 percent of the health center’s budget. The group is projecting a loss in October of more than $500,000 and preparing to furlough its staff if the shutdown continues through the month.

Maria Gomez, chief executive of Mary’s Center, spoke at a news conference with Mayor Vincent Gray and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton Wednesday morning at the Capitol highlighting the effects of the federal shutdown. Other nonprofit leaders who expressed detrimental impacts included Seabury Resources for the Aging, St. John’s Community, Friendship Public Charter School and Fairfax Fire & Rescue Department.

A host of other charities are also speaking out about the devastating impact of the shutdown on their services. Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington and a host of charities are lobbying Capitol Hill this week urging Congress to come to a budget solution.

“This shutdown is senseless,” wrote Diana Leon-Taylor, president and chief executive of the Nonprofit Roundtable, in an email. “It is not simply furloughing government staff, but devastating our business and nonprofit sector.”

Volunteers of America Chesapeake expects to lose $1.2 million and furlough 160 employees if the shutdown hasn’t ended in 30 days.

DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence is a 12-member agency that gets 60 to 90 percent of their budget from government funds. The groups says that in addition to increased requests for assistance such as food and transportation assistance, if the shutdown continues past this week, programs will reduce, and employees will not be paid.

“During the recession banks were being bailed out…but the nonprofit sector hasn’t gotten any help,” said Kaplan.

Taking a break from the campaign trail in the Garden State, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie huddled with top Senate Republicans Wednesday afternoon at the U.S. Capitol.

The governor, who faces reelection in less than a month, told reporters after the meeting that he was merely paying a “courtesy visit” to Sen. Jeff Chiesa (R-N.J.), who will step down in a little more than a week after a special election to replace the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.).

“I’ve got a race in 27 days, guys, that’s completely my focus at this point,” he told reporters who asked about the subject of his meeting with senators. “I’m trying to be reelected as governor and my job is to work on the problems of New Jersey, that’s what I’m doing. I’m just down here today to have a visit with the senator, and he’s introduced me to some of the new friends he’s made over the last four and a half months and that’s all that today is about.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his top lieutenants John Cornyn (R-Tex.), John Thune (R-S.D.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) also attended the meeting, which lasted more than a half hour.

In a televised debate Tuesday night, Christie dodged questions about his potential 2016 presidential ambitions, saying he “can walk and chew gum at the same time. … I can do this job and also deal with my future.”

Asked again by reporters Wednesday whether he thinks he can walk and chew gum at the same time, Christie replied: “Sure, but only if I want to.”

White House press secretary Jay Carney says he’s disappointed House GOP leaders have turned down the White House’s invitation to the entire House GOP conference and will instead send a smaller group of GOP leaders to the White House tomorrow.

Carney’s statement: “The President thought it was important to talk directly with the members who forced this economic crisis on the country about how the shutdown and a failure to pay the country’s bills could devastate the economy. The President will talk to anyone anytime and looks forward to their visit to the White House, but will not pay the Republicans ransom for doing their job. If the Republicans want to have a real discussion they should open the government and take the threat of default off the table.”

Another poll, from Gallup, shows the GOP’s brand hitting a new low:

The House voted 425 to 0 to approve a measure that would ensure the Pentagon is able to pay death benefits to the families of U.S. service members killed in the line of duty.

The vote came shortly after the White House said President Obama has instructed the Defense Department to ensure that the roughly $100,000 payouts are made as scheduled when necessary.

The bill is expected to be ignored by the Senate, because Democrats controlling the chamber have said they are opposed to approving piecemeal short-term spending measures instead of reopening the entire federal government.

Around the same time the House passed the bill, though, the legislation became somewhat moot, as the Defense Department announced it had found a donor to pay death benefits until the shutdown is over.

In a statement, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said his department is “entering into an agreement with the Fisher House Foundation that will allow the federal government to provide the family members of fallen service members with the full set of benefits they have been promised, including a $100,000 death gratuity payment.”

The Fisher House Foundation had said Tuesday that it would step in and provide the $100,000 benefit to any family members of killed troops who were being denied the money because of the shutdown. The difference now is that the Pentagon has formally agreed to pay back the Foundation after the shutdown ends.

With Aaron Blake.

President Obama earlier today invited the entire House GOP conference to the White House for a meeting tomorrow, according to House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) office.

Citing the White House’s posture toward having no negotiations as well as the drawn-out shutdown, though, House GOP leaders have opted to send a much smaller contingent.

Here’s who will attend:

Elected Leaders

• Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio)
• Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.)
• Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)
• Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.)
• Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore).
• Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.)
• Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan.)
• Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.)
• Rep. Steve Southerland (R-Fla.)
• Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.)
• Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.)
• Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.)

Chairmen

• Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.)
• Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.)
• Energy Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.)
• Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.)
• House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.)
• House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.)

So just how much of the government would be funded through the House GOP’s piecemeal continuing resolutions?

Not much.

The graphic below shows just how small the chunks — which the Senate is, by the way, declining to pass — are in relation to the overall budget.

The Pay Our Military Act, which was passed by both chambers and signed by President Obama, is the first big chunk. But the rest of the mini-CRs on the table only account for about 14 percent of the rest of the budget’s “discretionary” funding.

(For the full graphic, see here.)

For the hundreds of thousands of federal workers impacted by the shutdown, there are concerns about pay, usefulness, career choices and myriad other things. For the people around them — the spouses, significant others, roommates, friends or others — the impact is different, as Monica Hesse reports:

The furloughed, according to their spouses, are sometimes not changing out of their pajamas until noon. They are eating all of the cereal or buying weird things for the house.

Some also are becoming industrious: finally cleaning out the storage room, picking up the kids from school, baking furlough desserts. Were it not for the uncertainty of it — the vagueness of when this will end, and whether back pay will come through before the next mortgage payment is due — it could be a lovely thing to have a furloughed spouse at home.

Head here for more.

Sometimes adversity brings out the best in people.

That was apparently the case with this man, who witnesses say volunteered himself to mow the lawn around the Lincoln Memorial on Wednesday morning.

He did so while carrying the flag of South Carolina.

Here’s to this guy…

Update 2:32 p.m.: The man appears to be Chris Cox, whom CBS talked to Wednesday. He has reportedly agreed with Park Police’s request that he cease his volunteer work.

Guy is mowing the lawn at the Lincoln Memorial himself b/c it’s not getting done w/shutdown. While carrying a flag. pic.twitter.com/xzkCJddjCy

— Shane Lohman (@ShaneLohman) October 9, 2013

Spotted outside Lincoln Memorial – random dude mowing. pic.twitter.com/ywJggp4j8Z

— Sally (@sallyhs) October 9, 2013

Top House Republicans and Democrats met around midday Wednesday to discuss the current impasse just a few hours before House Democrats are scheduled to meet with President Obama at the White House.

The meeting was requested by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), according to aides to Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio).

“As we’ve stated publicly, we’re willing to meet with any Democratic leader who is willing to talk,” said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel.

Aides said the meeting between the leaders lasted about 40 minutes but didn’t yield any new agreements.

In a statement, Pelosi said that “Whip Hoyer and I reiterated that there are 200 Democratic votes to accept the Republican budget number of $986 billion to re-open government, and that we would agree to smooth the path to a budget conference. We were disappointed the Speaker did not take ‘yes’ for an answer.”

(Ed O’Keefe/The Washington Post)

The deadline to raise the federal debt limit on Oct. 17 is fast-approaching and most rank-and-file senators are mostly biding their time until Congressional leaders strike a deal, but time is standing still in the U.S. Senate. Or at least in the corridor just outside the Senate Chamber.

The famed Ohio Clock stands in the hallway outside the Senate Chamber known as the Ohio Clock Corridor. The clock appears to have stopped working around 12:15 p.m. Or maybe it was at 12:15 a.m. — nobody really seems to know.

It’s unclear when someone might be able to fix the clock, since most maintenance staff at the U.S. Capitol has been furloughed. (By the way, the clock was actually made in Philadelphia, but that’s an anomaly to explain some other time.)

We would ask the folks in charge about when they might fix the clock, but the spokesman for the Architect of the Capitol has been forced to stay home during the impasse.

And there’s no way of knowing whether there’s been a similar stoppage of time in recent years, because the folks at the Office of the Senate Historian are also furloughed.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday President Obama was upset to learn that the partial government shutdown had halted the death benefits military families receive and ordered his staff to ensure the benefits went through.

“We expect a solution to this problem today,” Carney told reporters during his daily briefing.

Three Democratic members of Congress are asking a group of their Republican colleagues to support efforts to force a vote on a “clean” government funding bill.

The Democrats — Reps. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), George Miller (Calif.) and Nita Lowey (N.Y.) — sent letters to 30 House Republicans who they and the media have identified as willing (or potentially willing) to vote for a temporary budget measure that does not call for defunding or delaying the Affordable Care Act.

The Senate has passed a bill doing that, but Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has refused to allow a vote on it in the House, saying the measure would not pass. Independent tallies however, including one by The Washington Post, indicate that there are enough votes for approval.

The Democrats want the Republicans to join in signing a discharge petition Saturday.  A petition signed by a majority of members could force a vote on the bill — though it’s not clear how soon such a vote could occur.

Some of these Republicans have already said they won’t sign a discharge petition — a maneuver which has very rarely been invoked in the House.

The letter was sent to: Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.), Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Co.), Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), Rep. Charles W. Dent (R-Pa.), Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), Rep. Michael G. Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.), Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-Pa.), Rep. Tim Griffin (R-Ark.), Rep. Michael G. Grimm (R-N.Y.), Rep. Richard L. Hanna (R-N.Y.), Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), Rep. Leonard Lance (R-N.J.), Rep. Frank A. LoBiondo (R-N.J.), Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.), Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.), Rep. David G. Reichert (R-Wash.), Rep. E. Scott Rigell (R-Va.), Rep. Dennis A. Ross (R-Fla.), Rep. Jon Runyan (R-N.J.), Rep. Michael K. Simpson (R-Idaho), Rep. Robert J. Wittman (R-Va.), Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.), Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.) and Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska).

With Aaron Blake.

Paul Kane and I disagree (in a friendly way) over at The Fix.

Here’s the key part:

PK: John Boehner and [Eric] Cantor aren’t worried about losing the majority at this point, and that’s why they are constantly tending to their base inside the Republican Study Committee. They don’t believe the majority is at stake, so they worry more about their internal standing in HC5. That’s where you see the impact of gerrymandering, in the way leadership caters to its fringe elements.

Both Charlie and Stu – Cook and Rothenberg, respectively – have fewer than 30 House Republican seats as even in play, total, for 2014. Most of those are not even toss-ups, they’re just those remotely in play. That’s a fundamentally different orbit than what the Gingrich-Hastert-DeLay conference floated in from 1995-2007. Back then, when they regularly had about 230 seats, they pushed hard to the right but always feared losing their swing district seats and, therefore, their majority.

Even if redistricting only creates a buffer of 15 to 20 fewer seats in play for R’s, that’s a buffer that, for now, leaves GOP leaders not in fear of losing the majority. The result of that lack of political fear is, leaders suffer from what I call “HC5 Syndrome” – decisions are increasingly based on how they will play out inside the basement room where Republicans regularly meet, not on how they play out on the national political landscape.

AB: Fair points, again. I agree that Boehner likely isn’t as concerned about losing the House as he would have been two years ago. But I don’t think it’s as big a difference as people think.

Fair Vote did a good study on this. They showed that, before this round of redistricting, the GOP had 189 safe seats and there were 89 “balanced” seats. So Republicans needed to win 29 of 89 balanced seats (32.5 percent) to hold the majority. Today, after redistricting, there are 195 safe GOP seats and 74 balanced seats. So the GOP needs to win 23 of the 74 balanced seats (31.1 percent). The fact is that 31.1 percent and 32.5 percent aren’t that far apart.

I think the fact that the GOP majority is safer than it was before has as much or more to do with the fact that they were finally able to pick off all those conservative Democratic districts that should have been theirs to begin with. Even under the old map, GOP would have been heavily favored to keep the majority going forward. All they have to do is win one-third of the competitive seats.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) says Congress should be “ashamed” that its inability to reach a budget agreement has delayed payments of death benefits to fallen soldiers’ families. (CBS News)

Some Republicans say the government won’t actually default on its debts if the debt ceiling isn’t raised by next Thursday.

And according to credit ratings agencies, they’re right.

But the Obama Administration has a different definition for default, which it continues to use to argue that a “default” is, in fact, possible.

From Zachary A. Goldfarb:

Why the discrepancy?

The shutdown showdown has created unique opportunities for Congress to shine in tasks their furloughed staff usually perform.

Lawmakers have been spotted accompanying tour groups around the Capitol to acting as their own receptionist.

“We’re in a shortage of personnel right now so that makes it a little more difficult,” said Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) while answering a phone call in his office where 27 of his employees have been furloughed.

The media has been privy to a number of events designed to bring both parties together as the shutdown continues and a debt ceiling looms.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) organized a bipartisan coffee for members. Even though there were more media members than lawmakers in attendance, one Democrat, Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), did arrive.

During one group’s visit to the Capitol, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) stopped by to greet them.

“In spite of the inconvenience, I hope you have a good trip,” he said.

Watch the full report from “In Play” above and tune in to PostTV for continuing coverage of the shutdown and debt ceiling debate.

Who do you think is having the Worst Week in Washington?

Send in your nominations by tweeting #InPlay or posting in the comments below to have your pick featured on this week’s show.
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Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki acknowledged to a House committee Wednesdaythat the Department of Veteran Affairs was not well prepared for a government shutdown, telling members that he did not believe that Congress would permit such a thing to happen

“If you knew a shutdown was going to happen, it wasn’t shared with me,” Shinseki said during questioning by House Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.). “I didn’t think you would allow this to happen.”

“A shutdown of government does not occur often, and we had not good plans in place,” Shinseki said. “That didn’t become obvious to us until late September.”

A number of members on the committee said Congress deserves the blame for the problems.

Shinseki painted a grim picture of the impact of the government shutdown is having on veterans, and the prospect for more harm in his testimony.

“We’ve lost ground we fought hard to take,” Shinseki told a packed committee hearing in the Cannon House Office Building, referring to a halt in the department’s efforts to reduce the backlog of disability claims filed by veterans. After decreasing by 31 percent since March to about 418,000 at the end of September, the numbers are up by about 2,000 since Oct. 1.

Shinseki said that if the shutdown is not resolved before the end of the month, the VA will not be sending checks out to 5.18 million beneficiaries.

“There are veterans, service members, families and children counting on us,” Shinseki said. “Five million of them will be impacted, severely.”

The VA on Monday furloughed about 7,800 Veterans Benefits Administration employees. Once the money for benefits is gone, most of the remaining 13,000 VBA workers will be furloughed, as they won’t have work to do. “At that point we will be forced to furlough these individuals,” Shinseki said, adding that only skeleton crews will be kept on duty.

Shinseki also said with the furlough of some 2,700 information technology workers, no work is being done to further develop the paperless Veteran Benefits Management System

There is “no new development  being done, and there’s much to be done,” Shinseki said.

Former Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) says he hopes each side moves off their “comfort positions” and comes to an agreement to raise the debt limit. (CBS News)

From AP:

Stores will still offer plenty of suds. But the shutdown has closed an obscure agency that quietly approves new breweries, recipes and labels, which could create huge delays throughout the rapidly growing craft industry, whose customers expect a constant supply of inventive and seasonal beers.

Mike Brenner is trying to open a craft brewery in Milwaukee by December. His application to include a tasting room is now on hold, as are his plans to file paperwork for four labels over the next few weeks. He expects to lose about $8,000 for every month his opening is delayed.

“My dream, this is six years in the making, is to open this brewery,” Brenner said. “I’ve been working so hard, and I find all these great investors. And now I can’t get started because people are fighting over this or that in Washington. … This is something people don’t mess around with. Even in a bad economy, people drink beer.”

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, or TTB, is a little-known arm of the Treasury Department. The agency will continue to process taxes from existing permit holders, but applications for anything new are in limbo.

“One could think of this shutdown as basically stopping business indefinitely for anyone who didn’t have certain paperwork in place back in mid-August,” said Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association, which represents more than 1,900 U.S. breweries.

More here.

Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.), in fiery remarks on the House floor Tuesday, suggested that Republicans might be under the influence of “hallucinetic drugs.”

“We’re dealing with dangerous people,” Pascrell said. “Either they’re on hallucinetic drugs or they just lost their minds. This is what we’re dealing with.”

(“Hallucinetic” is used by some as an synonym for “hallucinogenic.” The remark occurs around the 9:00 mark of the video below.)

Pascrell added that Republicans are negotiating with a gun to Democrats’ heads — echoing language used by the White House.

“I’m from Paterson, New Jersey,” Pascrell said. “You never put a gun to my head; I got news for ya.”

Citing the ongoing government shutdown, the credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has cut its rating for the District of Columbia’s “Institutional Framework” from “very strong” to “strong.”

D.C.’s credit rating remains unchanged.

Key point: “…uncertainty of such gridlock coupled with additional uncertainty over the length and duration of a federal budget impasse places the district’s budget and spending in a state of dependence on the federal budget process.”

Here’s the full release from S&P:

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services revised its Institutional Framework (IF) score for the District of Columbia to “strong” from “very strong” based on our view of the weak predictability and very weak system support of the legislative and functional environments under which the district operates.

“Given the current federal budget impasse and lack of approval to begin its current-year appropriations under a federal continuing resolution, we believe the district’s revenues and expenditures are subject to inherent unpredictability that constrains its ability to control and administer its spending responsibilities,” said Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Le T Quach.

In addition, we believe the district’s relationship to the federal budget process does not provide the district with ample time to plan and adjust. Although historically federal government shutdowns have been an infrequent occurrence (the last shutdown occurred in 1995-1996), nevertheless, uncertainty of such gridlock coupled with additional uncertainty over the length and duration of a federal budget impasse places the district’s budget and spending in a state of dependence on the federal budget process.

Clarification: This post initially referred to S&P’s decision as a “downgrade” — a word often associated with an entity’s credit rating. To be clear, S&P has not changed the city’s credit rating.

After a series of speeches on the Senate steps, Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) took questions from reporters, almost all of them focused on whether the Senate would vote to provide more flexibility for the District to continue vital city services during the partial government shutdown.

“Talk to the Republicans, they’re the ones objecting,” Reid said when first asked whether the Senate would vote on the measure.

With cameras rolling, D.C. Mayor Vincent, C. Gray stood a few paces to Reid’s right staring at the Senate leader. As the news conference concluded and Reid began to walk back into the U.S. Capitol, Gray approached the Senate leader again.

“Sir, we are not a department of the government. We’re simply trying to be able to spend our own money,” the mayor said.

“I’m on your side, don’t screw it up, okay? Don’t screw it up,” Reid told Gray.

Local television reporters — perhaps not as accustomed to Reid’s candor — began shouting at Reid: “What does ‘don’t screw it’ up mean?!”

Reid ignored the questions and walked away surrounded by aides and security guards, at one point telling reporters that “Of course” he supports giving the District the budgetary flexibility needed to continue operating during the partial shutdown.

As Reid walked away, Gray held court with reporters on the Capitol steps, angrily denouncing Congress for failing to provide the District with necessary funding.

Gray told reporters he was calling on lawmakers to free up “the income taxes that we pay, the property taxes that we pay, the sales taxes that we pay, just like every other jurisdiction in America. Set us free to do like other Americans. If this is a democracy, now is the time to show it.”

Standing with Gray, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) eagerly sought to quash speculation about what Reid might have meant when he told the mayor not to “screw it up” in his pursuit for budget relief during the shutdown.

“He’s not angry,” Holmes said of Reid. “You certainly couldn’t expect him to be here unexpectedly and the mayor not to come forward to speak with him. Although we cannot expect the majority leader to negotiate with us or to speak with us in any detail on this matter. The mayor has asked for a meeting with the majority leader. That is the next step.”

Moments after wrapping up a rally in the East lawn of the U.S. Capitol, Washington Mayor Vincent Gray walked over to a separate event being held by Senate Democrats on the East Senate steps of the U.S. Capitol.

Gray cut his way through a bank of TV cameras and walked up to Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and began speaking with him. The mayor showed up while senators from Maryland and Virginia were scheduled to explain to reporters the economic hardship facing the two states bordering the nation’s capital.

Gray stands next to Tim Kaine as he decries shutdown impacts on Chincoteague pic.twitter.com/p1OMKDpLK6

— Mike DeBonis (@mikedebonis) October 9, 2013

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) also walked over behind Gray but left a few minutes later after being approached by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), who was heard telling her “we’ve got your back.”

The House of Representatives will be in session and hold votes Saturday, according to House Majority Leader Eric I. Cantor (R-Va.).

The House and Senate were originally scheduled to be gone this weekend for the start of a week-long recess around Columbus Day. But Cantor’s office advised that the schedule for next week is also up in the air and that the House may remain in session.

The House’s plans mean that lawmakers in the House or Senate will have been in Washington either for classified briefings or votes for four weekends since early September.

Heritage Action CEO Michael Needham said Wednesday morning that he would prefer those seeking to defund Obamacare to focus on the budget debate rather than attaching it to the debt ceiling debate.

“No, we should raise the debt limit,” Needham said at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast, according to Huffington Post. He added: “My tactic is to focus on the CR (continuing resolution).”

Needham acknowledged that breaching next Thursday’s debt ceiling deadline could have negative consequences, but that Republicans should hold strong and resist any budget that funds Obamacare.

Heritage Action has been a leading voice in the Defund Obamacare movement.

One of the nation’s top credit-rating agencies says that the U.S. Treasury Department is likely to continue paying interest on the government’s debt even if Congress fails to lift the limit on borrowing next week, preserving the nation’s sterling AAA credit rating.

In a memo being circulated on Capitol Hill Wednesday, Moody’s Investors Service offers “answers to frequently asked questions” about the government shutdown, now in its second week, and the federal debt limit. President Obama has said that, unless Congress acts to raise the $16.7 trillion limit by next Thursday, the nation will be at risk of default.

Not so, Moody’s says in the memo dated Oct. 7.

” We believe the government would continue to pay interest and principal on its debt even in the event that the debt limit is not raised, leaving its creditworthiness intact,” the memo says. “The debt limit restricts government expenditures to the amount of its incoming revenues; it does not prohibit the government from servicing its debt. There is no direct connection between the debt limit (actually the exhaustion of the Treasury’s extraordinary measures to raise funds) and a default.

The memo offers a starkly different view of the consequences of congressional inaction on the debt limit than is held by the White House, many policymakers and other financial analysts. During a press conference at the White House Tuesday, Obama said missing the Oct. 17 deadline would invite “economic chaos.”

The Moody’s memo goes on to argue that the situation is actually much less serious than in 2011, when the nation last faced a pitched battle over the debt limit.

“The budget deficit was considerably larger in 2011 than it is currently, so the magnitude of the necessary spending cuts needed after 17 October is lower now than it was then,” the memo says.

Treasury Department officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In a move that might make it a touch harder for Ohioans and Minnesotans to sleep soundly at night, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is postponing meetings on Oct. 15 in Ohio and Oct. 17 in Minnesota to get public input on a proposed rule about the extended storage of spent nuclear fuel.

The proposed rule and accompanying environmental study, known as “waste confidence” were published Sept. 13 and are subject to public comment until Nov. 27. The NRC said it will “reschedule the meetings once the shutdown is resolved.”

“The continuing government shutdown gives us no option but to postpone these meetings,” NRC Chairman Allison Macfarlane said in a statement. “We want to give as much notice as possible so members of the public who were planning to attend can make other arrangements. Once we resume full operations, we will reschedule the meetings.”

In a news conference this morning, D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and Rep. Darrell Issa gathered near the Capitol to ask Congress to give the District control over its own budget:

The House passed a bill last week that would fund the D.C. government through Dec. 15, but the White House and Democrats in the Senate have said they would not approve piecemeal funding bills.

D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray is worried about what a long-term federal shutdown could mean for the District.

Gray has requested meetings with President Obama and congressional leaders, writing in a letter on Tuesday that D.C. residents were “facing the loss of basic municipal or state services due to the federal government shutdown.”

Unlike the states, the District’s budget is appropriated by Congress. With the federal government shut down, these appropriations have also halted. And the shutdown has had an impact on the District’s finances:

Although all city employees have remained on the job and most residents have seen no change in the day-to-day operations of city government in the past week, a wide variety of District government payments have been suspended to conserve the city’s cash.

Last week, health officials announced that the city would not make $89 million in Medicaid-related payments. The city’s tax office said Monday that refunds would cease for the duration of the shutdown. And a variety of other payments, from federal Homeland Security grants to legal settlements, have been frozen as well.

Before the shutdown began, Gray said the entire D.C. government was essential so that the city could continue running. The District also tapped a $144 million reserve fund.

Read more about Gray’s concerns here.

(courtesy of Luke Russert)

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-Va.) new Washington Post op-ed takes a markedly different tone than Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.), stridently making the case that President Obama must negotiate with Republicans.

Here’s the crux:

The Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse and the power to borrow. The president was given the power to veto measures, including those related to spending and borrowing. These separate powers created checks and balances but also forced the executive and legislative branches to work together.

Courtesy of CNN:

Senate chaplain Barry Black, who has offered a series of stinging rebukes to Congress’s intransigence this week, may have outdone himself this morning.

Here’s what he said, according to a transcript:

LET US PRAY. O GOD, IN WHOSE PRESENCE OUR SOULS TAKE DELIGHT, TO WHOM IN AFFLICTION WE CALL, FORGIVE US FOR CONTINUING TO SOW TO THE WIND EVEN WHEN HEARING THE SOUNDS OF THE APPROACHING WHIRLWIND. LORD, WHEN OUR FEDERAL SHUTDOWN DELAYS PAYMENTS OF DEATH BENEFITS TO THE FAMILIES OF CHILDREN DYING ON FAR-AWAY BATTLEFIELDS, IT’S TIME FOR OUR LAWMAKERS TO SAY ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. COVER OUR SHAME WITH THE ROBE OF YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. FORGIVE US, REFORM US, AND MAKE US WHOLE. WE PRAY IN YOUR MERCIFUL NAME. AMEN.

Metro is out $74 million because the District never made its quarterly payment to the agency’s operating budget. And why wasn’t the payment made? You can probably guess

D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray said the payment wasn’t made because the city didn’t have the funds, due to the federal government shutdown. The District is impacted by federal shutdowns because its budget is appropriated by Congress. Those appropriations have stopped.

The transit agency’s $2.7 billion operating and capital budget is funded by fares, federal grants and subsidies from the District, Maryland and Virginia. The $74 million the District was supposed to pay was due on Oct. 1 — the same day the shutdown began.

A Metro spokesman said the missing funds won’t have any immediate impact on service. But the shutdown has already impacted service, with ridership dropping and Metro running shorter trains.

In a new op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) says current budget and debt ceiling negotiations should focus on entitlement and tax code reform.

Ryan, who has thus far been relatively quiet in the budget debates (given his status as House Budget Committee chairman), appears to be seeking some middle ground between the GOP’s insistence on Obamacare reforms and the White House’s no-negotiation stance.

In fact, Ryan only make a passing reference to “a complete rethinking of government’s approach to health care” — something he says could be accomplished later.

“We have an opportunity here to pay down the national debt and jump-start the economy, if we start talking, and talking specifics, now,” Ryan wrote. “To break the deadlock, both sides should agree to common-sense reforms of the country’s entitlement programs and tax code.”

Ryan noted that the budget deficit is projected to grow over the next decade and suggests some specific changes.

“We could ask the better off to pay higher premiums for Medicare,” he said. “We could reform Medigap plans to encourage efficiency and reduce costs. And we could ask federal employees to contribute more to their own retirement.”

Notably absent from that list: Ryan’s previous proposal to turn Medicare into a voucher program — something Democrats pillories him for when he was the GOP’s vice presidential nominee last year.

Ryan says his proposal doesn’t constitute a “grand bargain.”

“But right now, we need to find common ground,” he said. “We need to open the federal government. We need to pay our bills today—and make sure we can pay our bills tomorrow. So let’s negotiate an agreement to make modest reforms to entitlement programs and the tax code.”

In order for any of this to happen, though, Ryan notes that President Obama has to “come to the table.”

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) on Wednesday echoed comments by other Republicans that failing to meet the debt ceiling deadline next Thursday wouldn’t result in default or even economic catastrophe.

In fact, Coburn even suggested he would like the debt ceiling deadline to be breached, saying a “managed catastrophe” would be good for a country that has repeatedly put off tough decisions on government spending.

“I’d rather have a managed catastrophe now, which I don’t think will be there,” Coburn said on CNN. “Here’s the thing that all the media does: default equals not raising the debt ceiling. That’s not true. … Those are two different and distinct things. I’m not saying we shouldn’t pay our bills. What I’m saying is we should put ourselves in the position where we have to start making hard choices now.”

The National Republican Congressional Committee is up with shutdown-themed Web ads against a series of House Democrats.

The ads note an anonymous White House official’s comment in The Wall Street Journal last week that the Obama administration was “winning” the shutdown debate and it didn’t care how long the shutdown lasted as long as it emerged victorious.

Here’s the add being run against Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.):

Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), who often opposes GOP leadership on key votes, is the latest Republican to express support for a so-called “clean” continuing resolution that passed in the Senate.

“I wish we would pass a clean CR,” Jones told MSNBC’s Suzy Khimm. “People are beginning back home to feel it. It might be imaginary, but they feel it.”

Jones is one of the more libertarian-leaning Republicans in the House, but his district includes a large military installation, Camp Lejeune.

Jones makes 22 House Republicans who support a clean CR, after several House Republicans backed off previous statements of support.

The bill still appears to have majority support (200 Democrats plus 22 Republicans), though House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has suggested that it doesn’t and has declined to bring it to a vote.

A U.S. Marine died on duty in Helmand province, Afghanistan on Monday, one of 21 soldiers who have died since the shutdown started, according to the Defense Department.

But until the lapse in federal funding ends, the families of deceased military personnel cannot expect to receive the “death gratuity” of $100,000 the Defense Department deposits in their bank account within 24 to 36 hours, defense officials said.

More on the Federal Eye.

From the Federal Eye’s Steve Vogel:

Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki is warning that the government shutdown has harmed efforts to reduce the disability claims backlog, and threatens compensation payments for millions of veterans.

“The momentum achieved over the past six months has now stalled with the government shutdown,” Shinseki said in prepared testimony he is scheduled to deliver Wednesday before the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee. A copy of his testimony was obtained by The Washington Post.

Read the full report here.

From The Fix’s Sean Sullivan:

 House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) wasn’t impressed by President Obama’s remarks on the shutdown Tuesday. “What the president said today was, if there is unconditional surrender by Republicans, he’ll sit down and talk to us,” Boehner said.

The thing is, it might be Boehner’s best and only option for ending the standoff that has seized Washington.

Read the full analysis.

From Congressional reporter Paul Kane:

With barely a week until the next big deadline — when the federal government runs the risk of not being able to meet its debt obligations — Congress appears to be preparing for several more days of partisan posturing accompanied by no signs of negotiations to solve the ongoing fiscal crises.

Instead, House Republicans and Senate Democrats will be continuing down separate legislative paths Wednesday, as each chamber considers bills on separate fiscal crises.

Read the full report here.

House Democrats have been invited to a meeting at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, a White House official said, in the first in a series of meetings with groups of lawmakers in coming days to focus on the government shutdown, budget stalemate and raising the debt limit to avoid a default.

The meetings come as Republicans accuse President Obama of not negotiating with them over the budget.

The House Democratic Caucus will meet at the White House at 4:30 p.m. and the meeting will be closed to the media. Senate Democrats, House Republicans and Senate Republicans will be invited for similar meetings in the coming days, the White House official said. The official was not authorized to be quoted by name.