By Jaime Ortega.
The Republicans who control the House of Representatives have failed tonight in their efforts to finance part of the government operations in the first day of the partial shutdown of the federal U.S. government.
Thanks in part to the blockade of the Democratic caucus , Republicans failed to muster the two-thirds support in the House of Representatives needed to three different measures to finance the operations of the federal bureaucracy .
The three measures presented on the floor of the House, known as “continued resolutions ” sought to finance the operations of national parks , programs to help veterans, and activities of the Government in the U.S. capital.
The bill to fund veterans programs , for example, only had the support of 33 Democrats. The other two measures were not supported by the two-thirds of the 433 seats in the lower house.
In general , Democrats in both the House and the Senate , maintain a united front against budgetary measures that do not solve the biggest problem on the financing of government operations .
The Senate Democrats insist that the House must approve the budget measure that the Senate passed and extends for six weeks the funds for government operations. The Republicans , however, have insisted on subjecting any vote to partial measures to finance part of the operations of the federal bureaucracy.
Democrats, like Harry Reid among of the the majority leaders in the Senate, have argued that partial measures proposed by Republicans are not serious and that they must fund all federal operations not only to the ones they favor.
Hours before the vows, the Democratic minority leader in the House, Nancy Pelosi, derided Republican proposals by comparing them to ” the release of a hostage at a time”.
A White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage told reporters that Republican proposals “are not the way to run a government,” and that President Barack Obama ‘s veto if they come to his office.
However, legislative sources assured reporters that Republicans will try again Wednesday to vote to submit the three measures. Figure legislative resort to another only requires a simple majority for such action is approved .
Leaders of both houses of Congress continue to negotiate a solution to a budget dispute that has caused the partial closure of the Government for the first time in 17 years.
