Senate Democrats ARE holding fast while Republicans in the Senate try to fashion bills they want to come up for a vote…..
The Senate rejected a bill to reopen the government for the eighth time Tuesday, ensuring the shutdown will enter its third week with lawmakers nowhere close to finding a resolution.
Senators voted 49-45 on the GOP’s House-passed continuing resolution, which would fund the government through late November. It needed 60 votes to advance.
Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) voted with Republicans, as they have for nearly two weeks. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who had voted in favor of the resolution every other time it has come to the floor was not present on Tuesday.
Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) was, once again, the lone GOP “no” vote.
The vote comes as the two sides remain at a stalemate, with neither wanting to give any ground.
“I guess Democrats are not going to be satisfied until military families and government workers are lining up at food banks or visiting payday lenders or simply charging necessary items like milk and bread on their credit cards to be repaid late,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said on the floor before the vote, lambasting a report that Democrats are willing to allow the shutdown to go on for “several more weeks.”
“But, hey, while military families and government workers may be deeply stressed, at least life is getting better every day for Senate Democrats,” he continued, referring to a comment Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) made last week about Democrats’ political fortunes amid the impasse.
Democrats have repeatedly called for any deal on government funding to include an extension of the enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies that are set to expire at year’s end.
The GOP, meanwhile, has insisted any talks on those credits can only take place once the government reopens and have publicly pleaded for five additional Democrats to side with them to do so. ….
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Two senior Republican senators said Tuesday they strongly support the Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund after the Trump administration moved to eviscerate the program by firing all of its staff.
The elimination of employees at the CDFI Fund on Friday was part of the larger reduction-in-force orchestrated by Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought. A letter to fired employees said their termination was necessary to implement the abolishment of the entire CDFI program, which enjoys strong bipartisan support….
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Warner, on a press call Tuesday, said he’s working with Crapo to try to send a bipartisan letter from the caucus like they did in March after the initial executive order requesting the fund be eliminated to the fullest extent allowed under the law, to “show strong, bipartisan pushback.”
Additionally, Warner said he reached out to Bessent regarding the unexpected firings on the CDFI Fund’s entire staff and that he expected to hear a response back soon. Neither he nor Crapo saw the RIFs coming, Warner said.
“At least my office and Crapo’s office, the first reaction [to the CDFI Fund RIFs] was shock” and that “it appears maybe this didn’t come from Treasury, it appears that it came from the OMB. I think this goes against the law,” Warner said….
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Senate GOP leaders are looking to pressure Democrats to make progress on full-year spending bills that would fund the Pentagon and a handful of other federal agencies amid the government shutdown.
Majority Leader John Thune teed up the House-passed Defense appropriations bill Tuesday for an initial procedural vote, where it will need 60 votes to advance. That vote is set for Thursday.
Separately, Republicans are attempting to expedite the process of instructing lawmakers to go to conference with House counterparts on “minibus” legislation that would fund the Departments of Agriculture and Veterans Affairs, the FDA and the operations of Congress, among other offices and agencies. The plan was described by three people granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
GOP senators, including Thune, have also privately discussed attaching funding for the Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services to the Defense bill in a bid to entice Democratic cooperation. Some GOP senators expect leadership to try to add Transportation and Housing and Urban Development funding as well.
Senate Republicans leaders were Tuesday evening running a “hotline” on the GOP side to advance the package to conference — a process meant to smoke out any objections from their own members.
If Democrats ultimately object to the effort, Republicans plan to blame Democrats for standing in the way of appropriations progress….
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