GOP Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado is will support the Democrats’ proposal to temporarily fund the government until next month, even though it does not include additional border security funding as President Trump has demanded.
The Senate is poised to vote on Thursday on two measures that would reopen the government: one GOP version that includes $5.7 billion for border wall funding and adjustments to immigration law and another from the Democrats that would fund the government until Feb. 8, giving some time for a more permanent solution to be reached.
A spokesperson for Gardner said that the senator is against government shutdowns and will back both measures — including the Democrats’ stopgap funding measure that would keep border security funding at the current spending levels, the Denver Post reports.
Gardner’s office did not immediately respond to a media request from the Washington Examiner.
The partial shutdown has been the longest in U.S. history and has lingered for over a month due to the dispute over border wall funding. Approximately 800,000 federal workers have gone without pay due to the shutdown and are slated to miss another paycheck at the end of this week.
Gardner has also introduced legislation that would pay federal employees while the government remains in a partial shutdown.
“Our federal workers should not be deprived of their paychecks, which is why I’m introducing legislation that pays federal workers and provides peace of mind for our 800,000 government employees who are struggling to make ends meet,” Gardner tweeted Wednesday.
