House GOP says two-week spending bill gives Senate time to consider full FY 2011 bill

House Republicans on Tuesday framed the two-week spending extension it will vote on today as a way of giving the Senate more time to consider the full FY 2011 spending bill, which nearly all Democrats oppose.

"Most importantly, this measure averts a government shutdown, and allows the Senate time to continue to consider H.R. 1, the bill that we successfully passed in this chamber just one week ago," Rep. Rob Woodall (R-Ga.) said in debate that started at 12:30 p.m. Woodall also said that after more than 50 hours of debate in the House last month, H.R. 1 "now sits idly in the Senate."

Democrats continued to reject the idea that H.R. 1 is at all palatable, and said any consideration of the bill was a waste of time at a time given that government funding expires March 4.

"Today we're racing clock to avoid this shutdown in large part because we squandered the past two weeks debating H.R. 1, a ridiculous spending bill that contained some cuts so extreme it had no realistic chance of ever being passed into law," said Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.).

But Democrats were somewhat conflicted, as they continued to train their fire at H.R. 1, not the two-week spending bill that will be voted on today. Polis acknowledged that the two-week spending bill, H.J.Res. 44, does meet the goal of keeping government open for another two weeks. But he said two weeks is not enough time to agree to a full FY 2011 spending bill, and stressed repeatedly that H.R. 1 is not a solution Democrats find acceptable.

Nine other House Democrats spoke before the formal debate, and most of them also focused on H.R. 1. Several Democrats cited the estimate from Moody's Economy.com that H.R. 1 would kill 700,000 jobs, but none said explicitly that they would oppose the short-term spending bill.