House passes bill that would avert shutdown

House Republicans plan to vote Tuesday on a bill to fund the government through March 23, with an additional sweetener of a full year of defense funding attached to the measure, notching their funding proposal just two days before the federal government runs out of money. It would also authorize funds for disaster aid, community health centers, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and fighting the opioid crisis.

Yet the House bill passed Tuesday evening is effectively doomed in the Senate, where Democrats are demanding that Congress raise caps on discretionary spending along with defense spending.

A House plan to prevent a government shutdown on February 8 faces an uphill climb in the Senate.

With the House of Representatives prepared to take up a short-term government funding package as early as Tuesday, Senate leadership said they are close to reaching a long-term bipartisan budget agreement.

“We’re on the way to getting an agreement and on the way to getting an agreement very soon”, said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

The most recent government shutdown was on January 20, after Senate Democrats filibustered the continuing resolution over the issue of immigrants brought into the United States illegally as children, recipients of the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. On Jan. 20, the blame for the shutdown was on Senate democrats, but any party with that kind of power should remember that party legislative agenda comes second to country because of the cost of not funding our government.

“Knowing my members the way I do, I think we’re in good shape to be able to pass it with Republican-only votes”, Meadows said.

Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer led senate democrats to filibuster the legislation and keep it in debate. President Trump tweeted, “Now I want a big win for everyone, including Republicans, Democrats, and DACA”.

“I think we are making progress on a cap agreement”, Ryan said. House Democratic leaders are urging a no vote, meaning Republican leaders can not afford many defections. “The president has generously laid out a plan that addresses both Republicans and Democrats” concerns, and we’re hopeful we’ll come to an agreement on both of those fronts’.

Can House GOP leaders pass a short-term spending bill without defense: Great question.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement that she would not support an emerging Senate budget deal that would avoid a government shutdown until House Speaker Paul Ryan commits to a vote on an immigration deal as well. And even as congressional leaders were sounding an upbeat note, Trump was raising tensions by openly pondering a shutdown if Democrats did not agree to his immigration policies.

“If we don’t change it let’s have a shutdown”.

Trump has said any immigration deal must include changes to programs for legal immigration that would assess applicants on their skills, rather than their countries of origin or ties to USA residents.

To pass a spending bill, the Senate needs a majority of 60 votes for the bill. “I know they continue to have discussions on the spending caps, so I’m hoping that dam will break and we can get a lot of this overdue business taken care of”.

Not necessarily. The undocumented young people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, so-called dreamers brought here by their parents, are the main point of conflict.