House Heads for Vote on Stopgap Funding Plan: Shutdown Update

by Dramelin 4:00 AM 0 comments

Temporary government funding runs out Jan.
19 and the House and Senate will have to pass a temporary extension to avoid a partial shutdown of the federal government.
Democrats are demanding that spending legislation include a provision permanently shielding about 690,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the U.
as children from deportation.
Here are the latest developments, updated throughout the day: Once House Votes, Spotlight Is on Senate Democrats The House is on track to pass a one-month government spending bill on Thursday, forcing Senate Democrats to decide whether or not to block the measure in a risky bid to gain leverage on immigration.
That means the odds of a shutdown starting at the end of the day Friday are going down, though not yet approaching zero.
Speaker Paul Ryan is close to having the votes he needs to pass the stopgap spending bill, and his team continued Wednesday night to lean on a handful Republican holdouts.
A GOP aide said Republican leaders were angling to keep the measure as it was presented initially to lawmakers, but didn’t rule out adding provisions -- like pay raises for the military -- to sweeten the deal.
The House Rules Committee late Wednesday sent the stopgap bill to the floor for a vote without any changes.
“We’ll be fine,” Representative Mike Simpson of Idaho, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, said.
Referring to the experience of the 2013 standoff that shuttered the government for 16 days, he said, “I guess you have to do that once every 12 or 15 years so that the new people learn their lesson.
” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi urged Democrats to put up unified opposition.
Republicans have a 238-193 advantage in the House, but they don’t quite have unity.
Representative Mark Meadows, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, was demanding some increases to the defense budget as well as promises to hold a vote on a conservative immigration bill.
The North Carolina Republican said Ryan doesn’t yet have all the Republican votes he needs.
There were some signs that leaders were at least entertaining some changes to the bill to get the votes.
The main one may be authorizing a pay increase for the military, which is being held up by negotiations on a full budget for the rest of the fiscal year.
“I’m leaning no right now, but there are a bunch of options on the table that could get my vote,” said David Schweikert of Arizona, a member of the Freedom Caucus.
“It’s a whole smorgasbord.
” Two other Freedom Caucus members, Mo Brooks of Alabama and Joe Barton of Texas, said they would vote for the stopgap, which also provides money for the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP.
“We have to fund our government and the Children’s Health Insurance Program is a big deal,” Barton said.
Adding CHIP funding was good political strategy, he said, because Democrats would have to explain why they voted against it.
Ryan can count on some moderate Democrats to vote for the stopgap if the only other choice is a shutdown, giving his team a valuable cushion.
Virginia’s Gerry Connolly, whose district is home to many federal workers, said he would vote yes if his was the deciding vote Another Democrat, Henry Cuellar of Texas, said he is is a “no for now” but if his vote is needed to avert shutdown he will vote “yes.
” “I think there are enough Senate Democrats like me that want to pressure but avoid a shutdown,” he added.
Senate Republicans will need at least 10 Democrats to back the bill in a chamber they control with just 51 votes.
It will take 60 votes to overcome delaying tactics of opponents, and an aide to GOP Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina confirmed that the senator told reporters he won’t vote for the stop-gap measure because it won’t include an increase in defense spending.
Senate Democratic leaders are insisting that the stop-gap measure include deportation protections for the young undocumented immigrants, and the potential loss of their votes over the lack of that provision threatens to spark a shutdown.
A number of Senate Democrats from Republican-leaning states that Trump won in 2016 aren’t willing for now to say how they would vote.
That includes Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Joe Donnelly of Indiana.
Joe Manchin of West Virginia said Tuesday that he won’t allow a shutdown to occur.
Other Democratic senators who voted for the last stopgap appear ready to vote “no” now, including Tom Carper of Delaware and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire.
Senator Dick Durbin, who’s been trying to pull together a bipartisan deal on immigration, said New York’s Charles Schumer, the party’s Senate leader, isn’t forcing Democrats in the chamber to take a stand that would shut down the government.
“He’s given lots of room to members to make decisions,” said Durbin, adding that he’s seeing signs that more red-state Democrats are leaning toward voting against the stop-gap.
-- Erik Wasson, Laura Litvan and Jack Fitzpatrick Here’s What Happened Wednesday: — With assistance by Erik Wasson, Laura Litvan, and John Fitzpatrick.