Senate Passes Spending Bill, Averting Government Shutdown

The U.S. Senate voted largely alongside occasion strains 54-46 late on March 14 to cross a spending invoice referred to as a continuing resolution, which can fund the federal authorities for the remainder of its fiscal yr ending Sept. 30. The invoice consists of about $7 billion in spending cuts, together with to some packages that fund authorities building tasks.

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 Price range estimates the invoice units whole 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 tasks. However not surprisingly, the measure additionally will increase protection spending by about $6 billion.

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

Republicans, with a 53-seat majority within the Senate and solely Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) saying he would vote in opposition to the spending invoice, wanted not less than eight Democrats in help to advance the invoice to a remaining vote forward of the 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 mentioned 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 very important authorities providers at a considerably sooner price than they’ll proper now,” Schumer mentioned the day earlier than the vote. “Underneath a shutdown, the Trump administration would have full authority to deem entire companies, 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 help from only one Democrat. Within the Senate, Democrats appeared break up forward of the vote. Lawmakers didn’t vote on a competing stopgap bill launched by Sen. Patty Murray (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 via 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, slightly than Congress, at a time when he and unelected advisor Elon Musk have already moved to cease spending mandated by Congress and hearth tens of 1000’s of presidency workers.

“As an alternative of writing a invoice that offers 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 in regards to the wants of our working households,” Murray mentioned.