A $1.1 trillion federal spending bill that narrowly passed the House this week is now hung up in the Senate, where conservatives, led by Sen. Ted Cruz, are protesting President Obama’s executive action on immigration as well as a slew of judicial nominations.
The standoff has triggered a weekend session in the Senate, with a round of votes scheduled for noon Saturday that will allow Democrats to move ahead with the judicial nominations and the spending bill before Congress adjourns for the year.
A threat of a government shutdown appears unlikely, however.
The Senate plans Saturday to pass a measure that will keep the government running under current spending levels until Dec. 17. Voting could go on all day, according to Democratic aides, and conclude Sunday with a 1 a.m. procedural vote on the spending bill. Democrats want to clear 20 nominations to the judicial branch.
Then, if the spending bill clears a 60-vote hurdle, a vote on final passage would take place approximately 7 a.m. Monday.
“Democrats are ready to pass it earlier,” a top Democratic aide said of the spending bill, but conservative Republicans are insisting on running out the clock.
Cruz, R-Texas, and other conservatives are angry that the spending bill does not include a provision blocking Obama’s recent directive to permit up to 5 million people now living here illegally to obtain work permits and some federal benefits.
Republican leaders had hoped the spending package would satisfy conservatives by providing only about two months of spending for the Homeland Security department, which would allow the GOP to try to block Obama’s executive action when they take over the majority next year.
But Cruz and other conservatives believe the GOP should act now to block Obama.
Cruz wants Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to allow a vote on an amendment to block Obama’s executive action, but Reid has refused.
“Every senator in this body should be put on record whether he or she believes it is constitutional for a president to disregard, to ignore federal immigration laws, and to grant blanket amnesty to millions in defiance of both the laws on the books and the voters,” Cruz said in a senate floor speech.
Democrats throughout Friday’s session were eager to spotlight Cruz and conservatives as evidence of a GOP divide.
Senate Democrats sent an email to reporters Saturday with the blaring headline, “Republican Senate Leadership on Cruz Control.”
A GOP leadership aide said a vote is scheduled for final passage of the spending bill on Monday, and said the Democratic depiction of Senate Republicans “is inaccurate.”
But Democrats have their own internal divide on the spending bill, headed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
Warren wants Reid to include an amendment that would block a provision in the spending bill to allow banks to resume a potentially risky trading program.
The provision was part of a Wall Street banking reform passed by Democrats in 2010. Warren and other liberal Democrats believe rolling back the provision would expose taxpayers to the kind of financial risks that led to the Wall Street meltdown in 2008.
Democratic leaders have not signaled whether they will allow a vote on Warren’s amendment, which is co-sponsored by Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter.
