Senate passes funding bill to stave off government shutdown

The Senate voted to extend government funding into March on Thursday as lawmakers prepared to leave town in anticipation of another D.C. snowstorm.

The continuing resolution, which passed 77-18, is the third short-term extension the Senate has approved since September.

Before the final vote, the Senate rejected a handful of amendments that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) agreed to in order to expedite passage of the bill. One of them, sponsored by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), would have prevented aid from going to the Palestinian Authority and other governing bodies in Gaza and the West Bank unless they met conditions that include recognizing the state of Israel. The Senate voted down the amendment 44-50, mostly along party lines.

The funding measure now heads to the House of Representatives. Without a stopgap bill, the federal government would partially shutdown since funding runs out on Friday for a number of agencies. Funding for the other departments expires on Feb. 2. 

Schumer urged his colleagues in the lower chamber to cooperate during a speech on the Senate floor ahead of the vote on Thursday.

“As we speak, there’s still a loud contingent of hard right rabble-rousers who, amazingly, believe that causing a shutdown is somehow a good thing, if it gets them what they want,” Schumer said.

“But here’s the thing: The fact that we’re passing a CR today shows yet again that this kind of bullying almost never works. The hard-right’s bullying didn’t work when we avoided default, it didn’t work when we avoided shutdowns last year, and it didn’t work today either,” he added.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has faced resistance to advancing a “clean” continuing resolution — conservatives attempted but failed to convince him to attach border language to the measure — but he plans to pass the legislation under suspension of the rules, which avoids the roadblocks hard-line Republicans might throw up.

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Schumer and Johnson reached a deal on top-line spending for the full fiscal year earlier this month. The deal preserved an agreement made last year between President Joe Biden and then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). The extension would give lawmakers six more weeks to pass their annual appropriations bills, shifting the current funding deadlines to March 1 and March 8.

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