Senate looks to speed up temporary funding
WASHINGTON — The Senate was pushing toward a vote Wednesday night on a temporary government funding package as lawmakers sought to keep the holiday season free from any suspense over a government shutdown.
Senators were trying to speed forward on the funding package one day after it passed the House on an overwhelming bipartisan vote. Passage would push a final confrontation on the government budget into the new year, when the House and Senate will be forced to confront — and somehow overcome — their considerable differences over what funding levels should be.
In the meantime, both top Republicans and Democrats in the Senate appeared ready to avert a shutdown and pass the temporary funding patch well before government funding expires Saturday.
“No drama, no delay, no government shutdown. That’s our goal,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a floor speech Wednesday morning.
Negotiations on advancing the bill to a final vote in the chamber were held up over a disagreement on how to proceed on a separate defense authorization bill, but senators still hoped to reach an agreement to pass the funding bill Wednesday night.
“Everybody is really kind of ready to vote and fight another day,” Republican Whip John Thune, the No. 2 Republican, said earlier Wednesday.
The spending package would keep government funding at current levels for roughly two more months while a long-term package is negotiated. It splits the deadlines for passing fullyear appropriations bills into two dates: Jan. 19 for some federal agencies and Feb. 2 for others, creating two deadlines where there will be a risk of a partial government shutdown.
The spending bill does not include the White House’s nearly $106 billion request for wartime aid for Israel and Ukraine, as well as humanitarian funding for Palestinians and other supplemental requests. Lawmakers are likely to turn their attention more fully to that request after the Thanksgiving holiday in hopes of negotiating a deal.
Schumer called the stopgap funding plan “far from perfect,” but said he would support it because it averts a shutdown and “will do so without any of the cruel cuts or poison pills” that hardline conservatives wanted.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, who crafted the plan, has vowed that he will not support any further stopgap funding measures, known as continuing resolutions. He portrayed the temporary funding bill as setting the ground for a spending “fight” with the Senate next year.