Tennessee’s Republican senators helped pass a temporary spending bill to avert a government shutdown this weekend. The compromise came after the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it could stretch its budget until the fiscal year ends Friday.
The budget fight was over whether to pay for emergency funding immediately or to pay for disasters down the road. Tennessee Republican Senator Bob Corker says in a time of austerity it was a fair debate because emergencies trump other government programs.
“To have an offset against something else that at that moment is of lower priority would make sense to me, so I’m perfectly comfortable with that debate.”
But the root causes of the impasse are far from over. House Republicans voted to fund FEMA by cutting money from a hybrid vehicle loan program. Nissan’s plant in Smyrna received one point four billion dollars from the program. Even though the company says the money created more than one thousand jobs in the state, Corker says he supports the GOP attempt to strip the money.
“Look, you know, I think we have to set priorities. I think disaster funding at the moment would be of higher priority than that.”
If the House passes the compromise the government will only be funded through the middle of November – setting the stage for another spending fight this fall.
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