President Biden on Thursday said he doesn’t believe the federal government will shut down this weekend, despite mounting resistance from Republicans on a spending deal to keep the federal government open.
“Look, I don’t believe that will happen,” Mr. Biden told reporters. “We have everything in place to be able to make sure there is not a shutdown unless some individual … decides to be totally erratic, and I don’t think that will happen. So I don’t think there will be a shutdown.”
Mr. Biden added that he has spoken with Sen. Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican.
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When asked if there would be a government shutdown on Friday, Mr. Biden responded, “no.” He also asked reporters how they could ask “such a silly question” when pressed on how he would prevent a shutdown from happening.
Congress has until the end of Friday to pass a bill that would keep the government funded and avoid a shutdown. But a group of conservative Republicans are pushing back on the stopgap measure, demanding a simple majority vote in the Senate to defund Mr. Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine-or-test mandate for businesses.
Mr. McConnell on Thursday also said there would not be a shutdown, adding that such a move would not get “an outcome” the dissenters sought on the vaccine mandate.
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