New government shutdown looms
White House says to prep for worst as Paul blocks vote
Congress was struggling to approve a bipartisan budget deal, but there are deep divisions over immigration, deficit spending and the midterm election.
WASHINGTON — Congress was struggling late Thursday to approve a bipartisan budget deal to avert a government shutdown, but the compromise was exposing deep divisions in both parties over immigration, deficit spending and how best to prepare for the upcoming midterm election.
The Senate was set to vote midday Thursday on the two-year package, which adds $300 billion in new federal spending to defense and domestic programs for 2018 and 2019, well beyond previous budget caps.
But voting was delayed amid objections from fiscal conservatives that could push a final vote into Friday.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., held up Senate action for much of the day by demanding a vote on an amendment that would force Congress to stick with the 2011 spending caps. Since the bipartisan deal circumvents those caps, the amendment would either tank the deal or force GOP senators to make an uncomfortable vote.
Negotiators also worried that if Paul were allowed to offer an amendment, other senators would seek to make their own changes, jeopardizing the deal.
If Senate leaders were unable to resolve the standoff before midnight Thursday, it means another government shutdown, albeit a brief one, potentially. The White House was warning government agencies to prepare just in case.
Under Senate rules, voting on the bill could have started around 1 a.m. EST Friday, and leaders expected that a coalition of Republicans and Democrats would pass it. That could provide momentum for approval later in the House, where the vote is expected to be close.
“I am confident that no senator on either side of the aisle believes this is a perfect bill,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “But I’m also confident this is our best chance to begin rebuilding our military and make progress on issues directly affecting the American people.”
Compromise often brings the parties together in partners-in-arms strategy to accomplish a common goal — in this case, to avoid the cycle of shutdown threats and temporary measures, including one needed Thursday to keep the government running.
But this deal brought opposition from several factions, particularly in the House, where lawmakers often stake out more partisan positions. Conservative Republicans protested deficit spending, and Democrats decried the lack of action to protect so-called Dreamers from deportation.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., urged Democrats to oppose the package, even though she had a hand in crafting it, while allies of Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., all but pleaded with his majority to deliver the votes needed for passage.
Only in the Senate, whose leaders negotiated the deal, did a sense of accomplishment emerge over a bill that would enable Congress to move beyond the fiscal fights to other issues — and the campaign trail — and assert the legislative branch’s ability to function despite President Donald Trump’s often shifting views.
“Oftentimes we can get a lot more done working with one another and let the White House just sit on the sidelines,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
The spending package could become a defining moment ahead of November’s midterm elections, when control of the House and the narrow balance of power in the Senate are at stake.
Outside groups intensified the pressure, storming offices and jamming phone lines, warning lawmakers their votes would be logged and remembered.
“Anyone who votes for the Senate budget deal is colluding with this president and this administration to deport Dreamers,” said Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., a leading advocate for immigrants. “It is as simple as that.”
The so-called Dreamers, young immigrants who fear losing protection from deportation under an Obamaera program that Trump has said he will end, continued to risk arrest across the Capitol complex as they tried to meet with lawmakers, often occupying their offices, to share their stories.
“We’re in @NancyPelosi’s office today to share our stories and make sure all House Dems keep their promise and vote no on any spending deal that does not include #DreamActNow,” tweeted Bruna Bouhid of United We Dream, posting a photo with dozens of other immigration advocates in the Democratic leader’s office.
Meanwhile, the conservative House Freedom Caucus announced it would reject the package, reasoning that $300 billion in new spending, which breaks caps imposed by an earlier deal, “adds to the swamp instead of draining it.”
Annual federal deficits are expected to rise to $800 billion in 2018, levels not seen for several years, and the package also provides for a lifting of the debt limit to avoid a federal default and allow continued borrowing into 2019.
Conservative groups in the network sponsored by the influential Koch brothers, whose money is crucial to Republicans in elections, called the spending package — and its extension of specialty tax breaks for racetracks and Hollywood filming — “a betrayal of American taxpayers and a display of the absolute unwillingness of members of Congress to adhere to any sort of responsible budgeting behavior.”
“This proposal is a massive failure,” wrote Americans for Prosperity, Freedom Partners and others.
But for many lawmakers, the political fatigue of the budget battles — resulting in five temporary spending bills this fiscal year — and the sprinkling of federal dollars across so many vital government functions were enough to bring their votes.
The package would boost both military and domestic spending by nearly $300 billion for two years and provide an additional $90 million in disaster aid for coastal and Western states hit hard by last year’s hurricanes and wildfires, as well as storm-ravaged Puerto Rico.