Related developments

Arizona seat: Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ aides have urged former Surgeon General Richard Carmona to run for a U.S. Senate seat in Arizona, Carmona said Friday, in the strongest indication Giffords herself will not seek the seat being vacated by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz. It remains unclear whether Giffords will run for re-election to her House seat.

Solar company: Top executives of Solyndra, the shuttered solar company that received a $500 million federal loan before going bankrupt, refused to answer questions from lawmakers Friday, instead invoking their rights against self-incrimination. Furious Republican lawmakers described the loan as a “taxpayer ripoff” — and pledged to continue probing whether the firm misled the government and whether the Obama administration failed to properly vet the company. Solyndra’s Chief Executive Officer Brian Harrison and Chief Financial Officer Bill Stover invoked the Fifth Amendment at least eight times before being excused by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

EPA rules: The Republican-controlled House passed, 249-169, a bill Friday that would delay or scrap rules to reduce mercury and other harmful air emissions. The measure next goes to the Senate, where Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer vowed to defeat it.

Seattle Times news services

WASHINGTON — An impasse between the House and Senate over a bill to keep the government open after Sept. 30 and provide aid to natural-disaster victims deepened Friday as the Senate shot down a House measure passed just hours before.

House members, considering their work done, headed home to their districts for a week’s recess, trailing uncertainty behind them because no resolution to the standoff appeared imminent. The Senate set a procedural vote for Monday in an effort to advance an alternative, but it was unclear whether it could draw sufficient support or whether Republican leaders would call members of the House back to consider it even if did pass the Senate.

The dispute meant that fewer than six months after a fiscal throw-down left the government at the precipice of a shutdown in the spring, Congress has brought the nation there again. While the government has until Friday before it runs out of money, the $175 million in an emergency-aid fund for disaster victims is set to run dry as early as Tuesday.

After House approval of its stopgap bill early Friday, the Senate voted 59-36 to set aside the House bill, with a handful of conservative Republicans joining Democrats to deliver a decisive rejection. Democrats opposed the measure because the disaster-relief effort was offset by spending cuts to other programs dear to them. Conservatives appeared to feel their House colleagues had failed to cut short-term spending deeply enough.

The House bill, which had passed the lower chamber on the second attempt after cuts were added to appeal to conservatives, provided $3.65 billion in disaster relief. The money was offset by cuts to an Energy Department loan program for energy-efficient cars and another department program that was used to guarantee a loan for Solyndra, the solar-equipment manufacturer that filed recently for bankruptcy protection.

After that measure failed in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he would counter Monday with a new bill that would embrace the House disaster-relief amount, far less than the $6.9 billion the Senate had sought, but still reject any offsets, which Democrats and some Republicans say set an uncomfortable precedent. Asked if another form of offset would be acceptable to Reid, he snapped, “No.”

However, he declined to allow a vote on his bill Friday, saying he needed the weekend to try to cut a deal with Republicans. “Take a weekend, work with us, cool off,” Reid said at a news conference.

It is also likely that Democrats hope Republicans come under pressure in their districts over the weekend to pass a bill with disaster relief. But the clock may work against Reid. If his bill cannot pass the chamber — and Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the GOP leader, said it would not — he will be left with just hours before the federal emergency money runs dry and a House scattered through the nation.

House members were told Friday that no votes were scheduled until Oct. 3, though the House will be in pro forma session next week. Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat, said Friday that he believed if the Senate bill received 60 votes, it could pass the House by unanimous consent without lawmakers returning, an optimistic assessment given the partisan atmosphere.

Indeed, 24 Republicans voted against their own party’s bill early Friday because it did not cut enough current-year spending.

Without an agreement on a bill to pay for federal operations beginning Oct. 1, the government would run out of money before lawmakers returned unless some resolution was found. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has put several repair projects on hold, and the money in its disaster bank is at its lowest levels in history.

On Friday, four governors from states hit by natural disasters — Andrew Cuomo of New York and Bev Perdue of North Carolina, both Democrats, and Chris Christie of New Jersey and Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania, two Republicans — issued a statement criticizing the congressional impasse.

“Within 10 days of Hurricane Katrina, Congress passed and the president signed over $60 billion in aid for the Gulf Coast,” the governors wrote.

“It’s been 28 days since Irene and Lee started battering our states. We urge this Congress to move swiftly to ensure that disaster aid through FEMA and other federal programs is sufficient to start rebuilding now.”

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Friday the only way to advance the legislation would be for the Senate to capitulate and accept the House bill.

As the spending bill stalled, a spokesman for President Obama expressed alarm at the inability of Congress to reach a deal.

“The members of Congress work for the American people,” the spokesman, Jay Carney, said. “They work for the constituents who sent them here, in their districts and states. We are absolutely confident that the vast majority of those constituents are not asking very much when they insist that Congress perform the basic functions that they were sent here to perform … .”