BREAKING: Senate Passes Spending Bill, Narrowly Avoiding Shutdown — 3 Hours Before Deadline
The Senate leaders from both parties, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), announced Saturday evening they had come to an agreement to support a stopgap spending bill that would avoid a government shutdown.
As the midnight deadline loomed, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) faced staunch opposition from hardliners in his own party, including Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-FL) ongoing threats to seek his ouster from the speakership. The speaker had one stopgap bill fail on Friday because he couldn’t win enough Republican votes, and then put forward a new stopgap bill with an expedited process, meaning it required a two-thirds vote to pass — increasing the pressure on McCarthy.
McCarthy’s 71-page bill continued government spending at current levels for 45 days, as well as providing additional funding for the FAA and $16 billion in disaster relief funding, in response to a request from President Joe Biden’s administration.
Democrats complained about the “rushed” timeline to read the new bill and the lack of funding for Ukraine, but in the end, enough of the members from the left side of the aisle voted to support it.
The final House vote was 335 to 91, with a total of 209 Democrats and 126 Republicans voting for the bill, and 90 Republicans against it.
The bill was then sent to the Senate, where Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) vocally objected to the lack of Ukraine funding. With about four hours left to go before the clock struck midnight, both parties were able to get agreement from their members and Schumer and McConnell both spoke briefly on the Senate floor before the vote officially took place.
“I have very good news for the country,” Schumer announced with evident enthusiasm. “Democrats and Republicans have come to an agreement, and the government will remain open. We will have avoided a shutdown. Bipartisanship, which has been the trademark of the Senate, has prevailed. And the American people can breathe a sigh of relief.”
Schumer added that this bill was only a “bridge CR” and that he and McConnell “have agreed to continue fighting for more economic and security aid for Ukraine,” because “we support Ukraine’s efforts to defend its sovereignty against Putin’s aggression.”
He concluded his remarks by thanking his colleagues “on both sides of the aisle for their excellent work.”
“The bipartisanship here in the Senate set the tone for today’s result, and I hope it sets the tone for the future,” he said before yielding the floor to his Republican counterpart.
McConnell was also clear in his support for avoiding what he called “a harmful and unnecessary government shutdown” and expressing support for Ukraine.
“Most Senate Republicans remain committed to helping our friends on the frontlines,” said McConnell, to “repel Russia’s invasion,” adding that he was “confident the Senate will pass further urgent assistance to Ukraine later this year.”
UPDATE 9:07 PM ET: The Senate vote is now official and the bill has passed, with less than three hours left before the midnight deadline. A White House official confirmed to CNN that Biden is on standby at the White House, ready to sign the bill as soon as it hits his desk.
CNN’s Congressional correspondent Manu Raju reported that the final vote was 88-9. According to Raju, the nine senators who voted no were all Republicans, Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Mike Braun (R-IN), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Mike Lee (R-UT), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Rand Paul (R-KY), Eric Schmitt (R-MO), and J.D. Vance (R-OH).
UPDATE 9:30 pm ET: Biden issued a statement expressing his support for the bill, praising the bipartisan negotiations that kept the government running but also blasting the “extreme House Republicans” who created what he called a “manufactured crisis.”
This is a breaking story and has been updated.
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