US: Congress Averts Gov’t Shutdown, Senate Passes Stopgap Funding Bill

By Staff, Agencies

The congress averted a government shutdown Friday just hours before the funding deadline, after the Senate approved a House-passed spending bill that exposed deep rifts within the Democratic Party.

The stopgap measure to fund the government into the fall now heads to the desk of US President Donald Trump, who is expected to sign it.

Senate Democrats came under intense pressure to oppose the Trump-backed bill, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and others are now facing backlash after they helped to clear a path for its passage.

The federal government will shut down after Friday if Congress fails to pass a spending bill.

The rising tensions within the party spilled into public view as lawmakers raced toward a shutdown that would have had far-reaching consequences across the federal government – highlighting the struggle Democrats face in attempting to counter Trump and the Republican monopoly on power in Washington.

Some 90 minutes before Senate Republicans staved off a shutdown on a nearly party-line vote, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and nine others crossed the aisle to advance it in a key procedural vote – despite intensifying pressure from their caucus to sink it outright. The legislation, however, only required a simple majority in the chamber for final passage, and all but two in the group ultimately opposed it.

Schumer argued his party had only bad options when it came to shutting down the government – possibly for months – to challenge Trump, or accepting a GOP bill that Democrats have warned would cut spending to programs like veterans’ health care or Washington, DC, firefighters and police.

“I believe it is the best way to minimize the harm that the Trump administration will do to the American people,” Schumer argued in defense of his decision to clear a pathway for the bill’s passage.

Trump praised Schumer for announcing he would support the measure, telling reporters after the vote Friday: “I appreciate Senator Schumer, and I think he did the right thing, really. I’m very impressed by that.”

Outside of Schumer’s leadership team, many Senate Democrats as well as House Democrats seethed at the Democrat’s move, which they saw as a capitulation in the party’s first real leverage point in Trump’s second term.

The initial vote, while procedural, had been closely watched by Democrats across the country, who saw it as a test of their party leaders’ willingness to fight Trump.