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House Passes Short-Term Funding Bill, Faces A Probable Legislative Death In The Senate

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  January 18, 2018 7:20 PM

UPDATE: Voting has begun:

UPDATE II: Bill to avoid government shutdown passed House 230-197. It's expected to fall short in the Senate, however,

Via Roll Call:

A government shutdown still looms even as the House passed a four-week stopgap funding bill Thursday evening, sending the measure to the Senate, where prospects for its passage remain grim.

House Republicans put up the needed votes to pass the continuing resolution before a handful of Democrats added their “yes” votes, for a final tally of 230-197.

A senior Senate Democratic aide said the House support for the CR does not change the caucus’s position to vote against it in the Senate.

Speaker Ryan said that Senate Democrats don't oppose the funding measure, but they're holding the government hostage over immigration.

UPDATE III: We’re adjourned, folks. Senate will reconvene at 11 A.M. tomorrow. No cloture vote on measure to keep the government open. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had a back-and-forth over DACA being “shoehorned” into the spending bill. Schumer tried to put forward a four-to-five day CR. 

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McConnell and Senate Republicans say there is no urgency, as they can hash out something on immigration before the March enforcement deadline, part of the six-month enforcement delay when the Trump White House decided to have a gradual wind down of the program. The delay was meant to give Congress time to pass a constitutionally permissible DACA fix. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) disagreed strongly with the notion that there is no urgency. He said that hundreds of thousands of lives are in the balance, lives that want to work in America, make a future for themselves and this country, and embrace the American dream. McConnell's first attempt  to adjourn until tomorrow morning was met with an objection from Sen. Angus King (I-ME). Eventually the upper chambered agreed to the adjournment. The shutdown clock keeps on ticking. 

***

Welcome to Shutdown Theater, folks. We’re about a day away before the government runs out of money, which is slated to occur at midnight tomorrow. When Congress averted a partial shutdown prior to the Christmas holiday, Democrats were adamant about one thing: no more continuing resolutions until a host of issues are addressed, even if they’re clean. The insane move of tying immigration to this declaration was born. Democrats wanted Congress to tackle Section 702 of FISA, Children’s Health Insurance Program, and DACA. Two of the three are done. FISA will be re-authorized and CHIP is funded for the next six years in the stopgap measure to keep the government funded that’s under consideration. DACA remains unresolved, though some Democrats have said they think immigration should be a stand-alone piece of legislation. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said not too long ago that linking immigration reforms to budgetary matters would breed chaos. 

Well, the good news is that in the House, the Freedom Caucus is backing the temporary funding measure. We’re still short in the Senate (via Politico):

The House Freedom Caucus said it would support a stop-gap funding bill to keep the government open, likely ensuring Republicans will have the votes to pass the measure on Thursday night. The proposal, however, still faces significant opposition in the Senate. Lawmakers need to pass a funding bill by midnight Friday to avoid a government shutdown.

[…]

After a lively party lunch on Thursday, the vast majority of the Senate Democratic caucus emerged in opposition to the GOP proposal.

“I am convinced that between Republicans who publicly said they’re [voting] no and Democrats who said they’re a ‘no,’ there are not enough votes in this chamber” to pass the House plan, said a Democratic Senator, who requested anonymity to discuss the matter freely.

The sentiment was confirmed by a Democratic aide and another senator.

McConnell told his members in an email obtained by POLITICO that he intends to keep the chamber in session through the weekend if a shutdown occurs. Republican senators also discussed the possibility of a much shorter spending bill at a Wednesday lunch, hoping to keep the pressure on Congress to hammer out a large agreement rather than punt on contentious spending and immigration issues.

Katie wrote that Democrats want to shut the government down. We’re now at 50/50 chances that things go dark (so to speak) tomorrow night. Is a government shut down the end of the world? No. But we don’t need this right now during an election year.