The government is set to shut down on March 14.
WASHINGTON—Senate Republicans do not have the votes to advance a House Republican bill to fund the government through Sept. 30, announced Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on March 12, setting the stage for a possible government shutdown in two days.
Senate Democrats are unified in wanting a clean 3o-day government spending bill, Schumer said on the Senate floor. A clean continuing resolution, or CR, would fund the government at current levels.
The government is set to shut down on March 14 if Congress fails to pass a CR.
Schumer said that there should instead be a bill that would fund the government for another 30 days.
“Funding the government should be a bipartisan effort, but Republicans chose a partisan path, drafting their CR without any input from congressional Democrats,” he said.
“Because of that, Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House CR,“ he said. ”Our caucus is unified on a clean April 11 CR that will keep the government open and give Congress time to negotiate bipartisan legislation that can pass. We should vote on that.”
Cloture requires 60 votes in order to overcome a filibuster in the Senate. It applies to most legislation. The GOP has a slim majority in the upper congressional chamber, with 53 seats.
The spending bill, which narrowly passed the House on March 11, includes about a $6 billion increase in defense spending and a $13 billion reduction in non-defense spending. It also includes additional funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) but eliminates funding for veterans who were subject to pit burns and other toxic elements.
The measure also includes a provision that would prevent congressional Democrats from bringing up resolutions to block President Donald Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on both Canada and Mexico. Trump also imposed a 10 percent tariff on Canadian energy.
The House recessed on March 11 and does not return until March 24. The Senate is also scheduled to be on recess next week.
This story will be updated with more information.
By Jackson Richman
