Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on Thursday was holding up legislation Congress needs to pass by midnight in order to avoid a partial government shutdown.
A spokesman for Paul said the senator was seeking a vote to restore the budget caps that members of both parties are looking to ignore in order to boost spending and nondefense spending in an omnibus spending bill they want to pass next month.
“All Senator Rand Paul is asking for is a 15-minute vote on his amendment to restore the budget caps,” Paul spokesman Sergio Gor said. “He is ready to proceed at any time.”
The House and Senate are racing to pass a continuing spending resolution by midnight. That bill will also include an outline of the grand budget deal senators agreed to on Tuesday, and will also suspend the debt ceiling for a year.
Paul is holding up a unanimous consent agreement to speed up the process of considering the continuing resolution, so the bill can be passed today, before the midnight shutdown deadline.
Without his consent, the Senate could take up the bill after midnight, which could lead to some confusion about the state of government operations on Friday.
Thursday evening, with just hours left before a partial government shutdown, Paul went to the Senate floor to excoriate senators for refusing a vote on his budget language, and said they were dodging a vote to avoid being put on the spot.
“I want people to feel uncomfortable,” he said of his fellow senators. “I want them to have to answer people at home who said ‘How come you were against President Obama’s deficits, and then how come you’re for Republican deficits?'”
“Isn’t that the very definition of intellectual dishonesty?” he asked.
