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Senate Republicans and Democrats advanced a behemoth funding package through a key hurdle Thursday night after stumbling earlier in the day.
The vote came after President Donald Trump intervened to strike a deal with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., which will strip out the controversial Department of Homeland Security funding bill, and tee up a two-week funding extension to keep the agency afloat.
It’s a bitter pill for Senate Republicans, who pushed onward with the original six-bill funding package despite Senate Democrats making clear they would not support it if the DHS bill was still attached.
Still, the successful first step virtually guarantees that the new, skinnier five-bill bundle and two-week continuing resolution (CR) will advance out of the Senate later in the evening.
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Trump urged Senate Republicans to support the plan in a post on Truth Social, where he argued that the only thing “that can slow our Country down is another long and damaging Government Shutdown”
“I am working hard with Congress to ensure that we are able to fully fund the Government, without delay,” Trump said. “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).”
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“Hopefully, both Republicans and Democrats will give a very much-needed Bipartisan ‘YES’ Vote,” he continued.
Despite having Trump’s endorsement, Senate Democrats provided the key votes needed to advance the funding truce because of simmering Republican resistance over earmarks in the bill and effectively agreeing to Schumer’s terms and conditions to fund the government.
Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Rick Scott, R-Fla., Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, broke ranks with Republicans and Trump to vote against the package. They also voted down the first attempt earlier in the day.
SENATE GOP HOLDOUTS REFUSE TO BUDGE AS SHUTDOWN TALKS CONTINUE
But it won’t likely prevent a partial government shutdown.
That’s because the modification to the package, coupled with the CR for DHS, will need to be agreed to by the House, which is not in session until next week at the earliest. From there, it is unclear how long it will take lawmakers in the lower chamber to process the bill, and resistance is mounting among angry fiscal hawks.
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But Democrats aren’t walking away with everything they want, either. Before rapidly unifying behind the plan to block the DHS bill, Democratic leadership argued that a CR of any kind would effectively allow Trump to have a “slush fund” for immigration operations.
Renegotiating the Homeland funding bill could backfire, too, given that congressional Democrats originally agreed to the restrictions baked into the current legislation and Republicans aren’t thrilled to relitigate the bill.
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