Senate pushes ahead with plan to fund the government through midterm elections

Washington — The Senate is set to move ahead Monday with a plan to keep the government funded beyond the midterm elections as lawmakers work to avoid another costly shutdown this fall.

Senate appropriators unveiled the continuing resolution on Sunday, which would keep the government funded at current levels, with some exceptions, through Dec. 11. But the measure sets up a clash between the Senate and the House when the lower chamber returns next month, with just a few weeks before the Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government.

Before leaving town last month for a lengthy recess, the House approved a separate stopgap measure to fund the government into December, in a vote that fell largely along party lines and faced opposition from Democrats. Senate leaders announced at the time that the upper chamber would pursue a bipartisan approach, with the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to advance most legislation requiring buy-in from both sides of the aisle, while also looking to work with the White House on making funding adjustments. 

In the Senate, appropriators touted the upper chamber’s continuing resolution Sunday for making those funding adjustments, known as anomalies, including to nutrition, national security and disaster relief programs.

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democratic appropriator in the Senate, called the measure a “much-improved CR to keep the government funded and avert a shutdown that no one wants,” and pointed to additional provisions secured in the Senate version.

“This bill includes important extensions and language that House Republicans’ CR did not, and it rejects Trump’s frivolous war spending wish list,” Murray said in a statement. “Importantly, we closed the loophole in House Republicans’ CR that would have allowed the Trump administration to transfer funding provided for other programs to Border Patrol, which desperately needs reform, not more money.”

Democrats have been seeking a number of provisions in the stopgap measure. The Border Patrol portion, which they argue would prevent the administration from moving funds allotted to the rest of Customs and Border Protection to the agency, comes after Democrats refused to fund immigration enforcement agencies earlier this year. The top Democratic appropriator in the House, Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, said last month that she wouldn’t support the lower chamber’s stopgap measure because it failed to include a provision that zeroed out funding for Border Patrol. In a statement Sunday, DeLauro called the Senate measure “a clear improvement over the House Republican continuing resolution.”

Senate Democrats also celebrated language to temporarily prevent political appointees in the administration from implementing a proposed grants rule, which they warn would allow the administration to cancel grants and “take even more federal funding hostage.”

But Democrats were unable to secure additional provisions, like one aimed at preventing the administration from pursuing so-called “pocket rescissions” to claw back previously appropriated funding. 

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, praised the stopgap funding measure for avoiding “any poison pills.” She called it a “major step toward averting a damaging shutdown that only harms vital programs and federal workers.”

“I look forward to our continued work on appropriations legislation and to bringing them to the Senate floor as soon as possible,” Collins said in a statement.

The Senate is aiming to approve the measure before leaving town for its August recess later this week, with an initial procedural vote Monday evening. 

How the House will proceed when it returns on Aug. 31 remains to be seen. The Senate’s measure could see support from Democrats, giving House Speaker Mike Johnson a bipartisan coalition to secure its passage. But the Louisiana Republican could also face pushback from members of his own conference and pressure to stand firm on the House-approved measure. Even so, with limited time and widespread concern about the cost of another shutdown ahead of the midterms, lawmakers may be less inclined to oppose a deal.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who was at the center of the record government shutdowns over the past year and has faced pressure to leverage the funding fights for his party, praised the continuing resolution as a “responsible path forward that allows continued bipartisan negotiations on a budget that delivers for American families.”

“For months, Democrats have been clear: we want to fund the government, avoid a shutdown, and pass strong, bipartisan appropriations bills that improve people’s lives,” Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in a statement. “Democrats remain committed to funding negotiations that help hardworking Americans get ahead and stymie Trump’s wasteful, corrupt agenda that has failed families.”