WASHINGTON — Senate leaders are pushing lawmakers to advance a bipartisan government funding deal this week so that they can vote to avert a shutdown when the chamber returns next month from a five-week recess.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) said the continuing resolution (CR) would fund most of the government at current levels until Dec. 11, while increasing spending on certain programs such as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children.
It also would scrap a proposed federal rule, first reported by The Post in May, that gave the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) greater authority over grant funding.
“I advocated for significant changes to the proposed rule in a July 6 letter to the agency, citing its potential to politicize grants and harm small, rural communities, families, and biomedical research,” Collins said.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the Appropriations panel, also celebrated that the bill “blocks implementation of OMB’s corrupt new grants rule for the duration of the CR.”
A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) also posted on X: “Bipartisan CR released eight-plus weeks before funding deadline. Passing it now will avert costly government shutdown in the fall. The first procedural vote on this package will happen [Monday] at 5:30pm.”
It’s unclear if the bill will attain the 60 votes necessary to avoid the legislative filibuster, and not all Republican appropriators are on board.
“It’s been reported that Senator [Chuck] Schumer [D-NY], in return for keeping government open, wants Senator Thune to kill the budget resolution, and to take away President Trump’s authority to review government grants,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told NBC’s “Meet The Press” Sunday morning. “I think to agree to that would be top of the heap, king of the hill, A-number-one stupid.
“Will I vote for it? The short answer is no. The long answer is hell no,” Kennedy told moderator Kristen Welker. “And if that’s what we — Senator Thune puts on the floor, I’m not going to vote for it, and I don’t think most Republicans will, and I don’t think the House will.”
The Louisiana Republican pushed instead for a so-called “clean” CR to extend government funding at current levels for a few more months.
“And if Senator Schumer wants to shut down the government at the behest of the Graham Platner wing of his party, he should knock himself out,” Kennedy added. “I don’t think he’ll do it.”
House Republicans, with some Democratic support, passed their own version of a clean CR on July 22.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, opposed that bill because it didn’t carry over a provision that blocked funding for Border Patrol.
In announcing the Senate continuing resolution, Murray noted that the Appropriations panel had restored that provision because Border Patrol “desperately needs reform, not more money.”
“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 said in a statement Sunday.
“The CR released today is a responsible path forward that allows continued bipartisan negotiations on a budget that delivers for American families.”
If passed, the continuing resolution will have to be considered by the House, which is not due back until Aug. 31.
