Senate rejects dueling funding bills, teeing up government shutdown at midnight

For the second time in two weeks, the Senate rejected dueling proposals to fund the government, all but guaranteeing a shutdown at midnight.

Senators voted 55-45 on Tuesday against a House-passed measure to keep the government open for another seven weeks, short of the 60-vote threshold needed to clear the filibuster. The bill was “clean,” meaning a simple extension without “poison pill” provisions, but Democrats have used the funding fight as leverage to extract concessions on healthcare.

In a separate 47-53 vote, the Senate voted down a Democrat-led funding bill that would have permanently extended expiring Obamacare subsidies and rolled back Medicaid reforms in President Donald Trump’s tax law.

The outcome is a repeat from two weeks ago, when Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) put

Continue reading