President Biden addressed the ongoing civil war taking place in the House of Representatives during his address on student debt Wednesday.
Biden opened his press event with comments on eight Republicans’ decision to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy with the support of House Democrats.
‘The House will now reorganize and select a new speaker,’ Biden said of the development in Congress. ‘I know it’s going to take some time, but I remind everyone we have a lot of work to do. And the American people expect us to get it done.’
McCarthy angered hardliners over the weekend when he passed a short-term spending bill known as a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government open for 45 days in order to avert a government shutdown and give lawmakers more time to cobble together 12 individual spending bills.
Biden acknowledged this agreement and subsequent breakdown, urging Republicans and Democrats not to let Congress force an ‘eleventh-hour decision.’
‘The argument we reached was about what comes next. But we had an agreement. We reached an agreement over the weekend. Funds for government, only another forty days,’ Biden continued. ‘We cannot and should not again be faced with an eleventh-hour decision. Brinksmanship threatens to shut down the government. And we know what we have to do. We have to get it done in a timely fashion.’
Biden expanded the scope of his critique to all of Washington — saying that US lawmakers and officials must come together despite increased tensions.
‘I join with Minority Leader Jeffries in saying that our Republican colleagues remain committed to working in a bipartisan fashion. We are prepared to do it as well — for the good of the American people,’ Biden said. ‘Twice in the last six months, both houses came together on a bipartisan basis — once to avoid default, wants to keep the government open.’
The president ended with an explicit note of gratitude towards the former speaker, saying, ‘And while we should never have been in the situation in the first place, I’m grateful that leaders on both sides came together, including former Speaker McCarthy, to do the right thing.’