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GOP scrambles to avoid shutdown

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives will hear a proposal Friday that would strip federal funding for Planned Parenthood – but avoid the government shutdown that looms over the issue, sources said Thursday.

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In the wake of moves by the Senate’s top Republican to advance a stopgap spending bill free of the dispute over Planned Parenthood, House GOP leaders may be ready to plot the same course. It’s expected to pass a procedural vote with bipartisan support on Monday night, and then receive final approval on Tuesday night.

Hoyer noted that Congress has historically been able to reach such an agreement, and he said there was no desire by Democrats to shut down the government.

There was no immediate decision from House Republicans, where conservatives insist on defunding the women’s reproductive health system, on whether a bill that allowed such financing would be brought to a vote. “They’re done with politics as usual, so when he’s (Boehner) saying you can’t defund Planned Parenthood because Obama’s going to veto it, that’s not the leadership we’re looking for”, said The Family Leader President and CEO Bob Vander Plaats.

But House Speaker Boehner is now planning to offer two separate bills: one to fund the government and one to defund Planned Parenthood.

“No, I’m not. I think we’ve got a higher responsibility”. In such a case, Boehner would need to get Democratic votes to pass a spending plan, as he has done on other must-pass bills.

Here’s the bottom line said Cuccinelli: Senator McConnell isn’t 100% pro-life. The fact-checking organization PolitiFact rated Fiorina’s statement “mostly false” because the video produced and edited by abortion rights opponents does not show Planned Parenthood staffers uttering those words before a viable fetus. “We were elected to make the government work for the benefit of taxpayers who sent us here”.

The latest attempt follows the release of a series of videos by an anti-abortion group purportedly showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing arrangements to provide fetal tissues to medical laboratories.

Cruz is vehemently opposing the funding of Planned Parenthood.

A test vote on the spending bill failed 47-52, with eight Republicans joining Democrats in opposition for various reasons, including a desire not to shut down the government. Bernie Sanders, say they have not watched the videos in question.

Wyden, a Democrat, spoke to reporters at the Planned Parenthood offices in Portland, where he held a press conference backing the organization as conservatives try to cut off its federal funding.

Even if a shutdown is avoided, however, a more aggressive Republican-led Congress could also challenge the White House over a bill to increase the borrowing limit of the federal government.

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The news comes on the same day that Boehner announced that he will resign as the Speaker of the House, according to The New York Times. Five clinics have closed since the 2011 state budget did away with about $1 million in state funding each year.

John Boehner