Democrats hope to force vote to end government shutdown

Democrats in the House of Representatives on Friday announced a plan that would, if successful, force a vote on legislation to fully reopen the federal government.

The workaround solution would circumvent contentious debates between party leaders by using an obscure legislative tool called a discharge petition, which would dislodge an earlier funding bill from a House committee and send it to the House floor if a simple majority of lawmakers in the chamber sign the petition.  

If the strategy is effective, it would still take a week or so to clear procedural hurdles in the House before a vote reaches the floor, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., told reporters on Friday. That means the earliest vote on a funding bill could come on Oct. 14, a federal holiday. 

The discharge petition is rarely used because it requires House members, in this case Republicans, to defy party leadership. But some lawmakers are confident that — given the dire situation facing the nation — the move will work.

Republican leaders in the House have been under pressure from many conservatives and tea party members, who are urging the GOP to refuse to pass a spending bill unless President Barack Obama agrees to delay implementation of the Affordable Care Act for a year.

But Miller and other Democrats believe there are enough moderate Republicans in the House willing to side with Democrats in order to pass a bill that would end the current shutdown. To bring a vote to the floor, 218 signatures would be needed.

“We will round them up. We expect to get them in a day," Miller said.

Since the start of the government shutdown on Tuesday, House Republican leaders have blocked other maneuvers by Democrats to pass a so-called clean bill, which would grant emergency funding to reopen the government without contentious add-ons to delay or kill the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.

The shutdown, which occurred when the House failed to pass a routine government funding bill, has so far caused the furlough of hundreds of thousands of federal workers, and has halted myriad government functions.

Al Jazeera and wire services