Even if the Senate passes the package, it would not be in time to avert a partial shutdown on Saturday as it still needs to be approved by the House.
WASHINGTON—The Senate on Friday will vote on government funding legislation after a deal was reached between the White House and Senate Democrats on Wednesday evening.
If the upper chamber passes the package, a partial government shutdown is expected to take effect over the weekend before the House returns from recess on Monday to take up any Senate-passed funding plan.
The vote series comes after Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) announced he would lift a hold on the legislation after Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) agreed to a vote on legislation related to “sanctuary” jurisdictions for illegal immigrants.
Graham lifting the hold cleared the way for the Senate to take eight votes related to the underlying funding legislation.
Many of these votes are related to amendment votes—including amendments put forward by Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.)—which will be considered ahead of final passage.
Final passage will require 60 votes, requiring the consent of at least seven Democrats.
The upcoming vote comes less than a day after Democrats and the White House reached a shutdown deal that involved splitting off funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from a broader spending package. After the fatal shooting of a second protester in Minnesota, Senate Democrats said they would not support funding for DHS without changes to certain immigration enforcement practices.
The deal includes a five-bill funding package for the departments of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development. It also includes a two-week stopgap bill to fund DHS, to allow further negotiations to play out.
Earlier on Thursday, the Senate blocked a funding package that included funding for DHS.
If the Senate passes the package, it will head to the House, which passed a different funding package last week. The lower chamber is out of session this week and is not scheduled to return until Monday.
Trump urged Congress to pass the bipartisan compromise.
“Republicans and Democrats in Congress have come together to get the vast majority of the Government funded until September, while at the same time providing an extension to the Department of Homeland Security (including the very important Coast Guard, which we are expanding and rebuilding like never before),” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Jan. 29. “Hopefully, both Republicans and Democrats will give a very much needed Bipartisan ‘YES’ Vote.”
