Shutdown nears as Senate delays vote
Stopgap House bill to fund government stalls in Senate as Friday deadline looms
WASHINGTON — A government shutdown appeared likely after Congress deadlocked over a proposed fourweek stopgap spending bill to keep federal offices open past today’s deadline. After the House late Thursday passed the measure, 230-197, with strong Republican support, the bill was headed for probable defeat in the Senate amid opposition from most Democrats and a few Republicans.
The setback sends the White House and congressional leaders back to the negotiating table in a frantic search for a compromise.
Democrats are rejecting the package because it lacks an immigration deal to protect so-called “Dreamers” from deportation.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., criticized Democrats for playing politics with the nation’s stability and security. He said they were putting the needs of the young immigrants ahead of the rest of the country. “That’s apparently how our Democratic colleagues rank their priorities,” McConnell said. “It’s not how I would rank mine.” But Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., the Senate minority leader, blamed Republicans’ internal divisions and a lack of leadership from the White House, particularly amid the president’s shifting views in immigration talks.
“The leader is looking to deflect blame, but it just won’t work,” Schumer said. “We all know what the problem is: It’s complete disarray on the Republican side.”
Schumer called upon Congress to pass a short-term resolution to extend the funding deadline for two or three days to allow for some breathing space in which congressional leaders and the White House could try to arrive at a compromise.
But both sides were already working to blame each other for what would be the first shutdown since 2013, when Republicans closed the government in an unsuccessful bid to kill Obamacare.
House Republicans pushed through the stopgap spending bill Thursday evening, brushing off President Donald Trump’s last-minute ambiguity about the deal.
After teetering most of the day, the measure won a pivotal endorsement from conservative lawmakers in the House Freedom Caucus.
Eleven House Republicans defied GOP leaders by joining most Democrats to oppose the bill. Six Democrats voted in favor.
But it seemed clear the bill lacked the needed support in the Senate, which began voting on the measure later Thursday night before adjourning until today.
Among those GOP senators who said they wouldn’t vote for the short-term measure were Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who has been trying to negotiate an immigration deal, and Rand Paul of Kentucky. Other Republicans are thought to be on the fence, and Sen. John McCain of Arizona is not expected to vote because he has not returned to Washington since going home to battle brain cancer.
The current spending authority for government operations ends after midnight Friday. If not extended, hundreds of thousands of federal workers would be furloughed and many — but not all — government offices would be shut down.
GOP leaders had been racing to cobble together what would be their fourth shortterm funding bill since last fall.
The proposed extension to Feb. 16 included six years of additional funding authorization for the Children’s Health Insurance Program for working-class kids, a provision added to help attract Democratic votes.
But most Democrats panned the measure. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, called the GOP bill a “bowl of doggy doo.”
Democrats are angry that the GOP bill lacks protections for Dreamers, young immigrants brought to the country illegally by their parents. Trump has said he will end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which offered the immigrants protection from deportation and work permits.
Though Trump has said he wants to help Dreamers, he is
also trying to get funding for his border wall with Mexico along with other immigration law changes in return. Talks on immigration continued Thursday behind closed doors.
Trump and GOP leaders in Congress have worked hard to blame Democrats for any potential shutdown, but Pelosi said Republicans bear responsibility because they control the government.
“This is one of the only times ever there’s been a shutdown when one party controlled the House, the Senate, the White House,” she said, noting that Trump has previously said a shutdown might not be a bad thing. “It’s really almost like an amateur hour.”
Even some Republicans are unconvinced about the GOP plan, either because it does not include increased funding for the Pentagon or because
they want to reduce government spending on principle. Others also want help for Dreamers or additional disaster aid for victims of the recent hurricanes and fires.
Republicans, with their slim 51-seat majority in the Senate, will probably need about a dozen Democrats to reach the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster, assuming some GOP senators object or miss the vote as expected.