Cantor: Latest stopgap should be last before long-term budget deal

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Monday he hopes the House’s latest temporary spending bill will be the last such measure Congress approves before a long-term budget deal.

The House is expected to consider on Tuesday another stopgap spending measure that would cut $6 billion from current spending levels to fund the government for three more weeks and avert a federal shutdown.

{mosads}“We hope that this will be the last time that we have to engage in any stopgap measures, we would like to see this resolved,” Cantor told reporters on Monday afternoon.

The House and Senate must act this week to avoid a government shutdown because funding is set to expire at day’s end Friday.

The Senate last week shot down two measures to fund the government through Sept. 30: a House-passed long-term bill to cut a total of $61 billion and a Democratic bill to cut a total of $10 billion.

A number of conservatives, including Republican Study Committee chairman Jim Jordan, have indicated they will oppose a second temporary extension. He called its cuts “bite-sized.”

Asked how difficult it would be to rally GOP support for the latest continuing resolution, as the spending measure is called, Cantor acknowledged the frustration among his colleagues for “this place to produce results.”

“But right now we are trying to position ourselves so that we can ensure no government shutdown but to continue cutting spending and to reach a result that I think we can get a majority of members to go along with,” Cantor said.

House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) chimed in, saying Democrats will have to “step up” to support the second CR and “get serious.”

“Our hopes are: Democrats are going to have to step up to make sure that this is our very last one,” McCarthy said.