G.O.P. Rifts Lead Congress to Spending Impasse

By JONATHAN WEISMAN and JACKIE CALMES, NYT

WASHINGTON — Hours before leaving on summer recess, Congress on Thursday hit a seemingly intractable impasse on government spending, increasing the prospects of a government shutdown in the fall and adding new urgency to fiscal negotiations between the White House and a bloc of Senate Republicans.

The group of eight lawmakers headed to the White House to find a way forward after Senate Republicans filibustered a housing and transportation spending measure, saying it violated a spending deal struck two years ago. The blockade of the Senate bill came after House Republican leaders on Wednesday gave up on a more austere version of the bill when moderate Republicans balked and said the cuts in the House measure were too deep.

For more than two and a half hours, the group met with the White House chief of staff, Denis R. McDonough, senior budget officials and, for nearly an hour, with President Obama. They emerged to say they would meet again at least once during the August recess.

Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, said the president pressed the group to aim for a deficit-reduction deal that would be larger than simply replacing the across-the-board spending cuts known as sequester with savings elsewhere in the budget.

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