Senate Passes Spending Bill, Averting Government Shutdown

The U.S. Senate voted principally alongside get together strains 54-46 late March 14 to go a spending invoice generally known as a continuing resolution, which is able to fund the federal authorities for the remainder of its fiscal yr ending Sept. 30. The invoice contains about $7 billion in spending cuts, together with to some packages that fund authorities building initiatives.

The vote got here simply hours earlier than the midnight deadline to avert a authorities shutdown after lawmakers final handed a stopgap spending measure in December. President Donald Trump is predicted to signal the invoice.

The nonpartisan Committee for a Accountable Federal Finances estimates the invoice units complete base discretionary spending at $1.6 trillion. It cuts nondefense spending by about $13 billion—together with $1.4 billion from U.S. Military Corps of Engineers civil works and $2 billion from transportation security initiatives. However not surprisingly, the measure additionally will increase protection spending by about $6 billion.

“For probably the most half, this can be a easy [continuing resolution] that merely continues fiscal yr 2024 funding ranges,” stated Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The GOP, with a 53-seat majority within the Senate and solely Republican Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) saying he would vote in opposition to the spending invoice, wanted the assist of no less than eight Democrats to advance the invoice to a remaining vote forward of the midnight deadline. 

9 Democrats, plus Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) joined them in voting to advance the measure.

Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) known as the invoice “very unhealthy,” however stated he voted to advance it as a result of the results of a shutdown can be worse. 

“A shutdown would give Donald Trump and Elon Musk carte blanche to destroy important authorities providers at a considerably sooner fee than they will proper now,” Schumer stated the day earlier than the vote. “Beneath a shutdown, the Trump administration would have full authority to deem entire businesses, packages and personnel ‘non-essential,’ furloughing employees with no promise they’d ever be rehired.”

The vote got here days after the Home passed the continuing resolution with assist from only one Home Democrat. Within the Senate, Democrats appeared cut up forward of the vote. Lawmakers didn’t vote on a competing stopgap bill launched by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which might have given lawmakers one other month to barter phrases of a spending invoice to run by means of the remainder of the fiscal yr. 

Murray criticized the Home Republicans’ invoice for not together with earmarks, the congressional directives usually included in spending payments, and as a substitute leaving extra management over spending to Trump’s government department, moderately than Congress, at a time when he and his unelected advisor Elon Musk have already moved to halt spending mandated by Congress and hearth tens of hundreds of presidency staff.

“As an alternative of writing a invoice that provides our communities what they want, they wrote a invoice that turns lots of our accounts into slush funds, and provides the ultimate say over what will get funding to 2 billionaires who don’t know the very first thing concerning the wants of our working households,” Murray stated.