Schumer announces Senate will vote Thursday on a stopgap bill to avert a shutdown.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday night that Democrats and Republicans had achieved an agreement on a temporary bill to keep the government open until early December and that the bill will be voted on Thursday to avoid a shutdown.
“We’ve reached an agreement on the CR — the continuing resolution to keep the government open,
and we should vote on it tomorrow morning,” Schumer said.
According to the New York Democrat,
the temporary package would contain emergency money for natural disaster relief as well as assistance with Afghan refugee resettlement.
With federal funding due to expire on Thursday,
Schumer said the Senate “can swiftly pass this legislation and send it to the House so it may reach the President’s desk before funding expires at midnight tomorrow.” Following the Senate’s action,
the House is likely to take up the bill.
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In recent days, the attempt to avoid a shutdown has been mired in a debate about how to deal with a potential debt ceiling issue.
Democrats tried to combine the two fiscal problems — the debt ceiling and government financing,
and enact legislation that would address both,
but GOP opposition stymied their efforts in the Senate.
Republicans have said that they would accept a “clean” temporary funding measure that does not contain a debt ceiling clause,
saying that Democrats must deal with the debt limit without GOP backing.
Democrats have retaliated, claiming that raising the debt ceiling is a nonpartisan duty.
In the face of Republican resistance to merging the two problems,
Congress now seems to be on the verge of passing a “clean” spending package that excludes the debt ceiling. After funding the government,
Schumer stated Wednesday that Congress must “handle the pressing issue of increasing the debt limit.”
Democrats are trying to find a way to avoid default,
but “Republicans have blocked us at every chance,” he added.
It’s still unclear when the Senate will vote on the temporary measure to keep the government running,
or when it will be sent to the House of Representatives for a vote.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday afternoon to reporters that she does not think the government will shut down on Thursday night,
and that the House will approve a temporary measure to finance the government.
When asked whether she believes the government would shut down late Thursday,
the California Democrat said, “No, I do not.”
“I believe we’ll get a large vote tomorrow,” said the speaker.
Schumer slammed Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Senate GOP for blocking Democrats’ efforts to increase the debt limit on the Senate floor.
“We’d never do it if we constantly let the debt limit expire because one party or the other didn’t like some future move the other might take.
It’s a ridiculous argument “Schumer retorted.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned that the federal government would run out of cash and extraordinary measures by October 18,
giving Congress little time to act to avoid a disastrous default.
Democrats can increase the debt ceiling on their own via a procedure known as budget reconciliation, but Schumer has warned that this is too dangerous.
On Wednesday, Schumer repeated his warning that relying on reconciliation is “extremely dangerous” and “may possibly lead us to default.”
With Republicans adamantly opposed to assisting Democrats in any manner in raising the debt limit,
it’s unclear how Congress will deal with the impending issue in the coming weeks before the US defaults on its debt.
“This body cannot and will not go through the drawn-out,
uncertain procedure proposed by the minority leader in resolving this issue.
It jeopardizes the United States’ full faith and credit “he said “To accomplish this via reconciliation,
different legislation from the Senate and the House must be ping-ponged back and forth.
It’s unknown territory here. Senators may move to postpone, postpone, postpone.
It’s very dangerous, and it might lead to a default.”
Republicans claim, however, that Democrats’ budget procedure to increase the debt ceiling will take just one to two weeks.
As the political brinkmanship increases and the stakes rise,
both sides are waiting to see whether the other will blink.
On Wednesday, the article and headline were changed to reflect new information.
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Schumer announces Senate will vote Thursday on a stopgap bill to avert shutdown
