The Senate Monday advanced a temporary federal funding measure, taking the first step in Congress to avoid a partial government shutdown on Oct. 1.
Senate lawmakers voted 77-19 to support legislation to replenish government budget coffers from the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year until Dec. 11. The move would give Congress more than two months to reach a larger deal on spending that would last all of fiscal 2016.
The House is expected to take up the bill as soon as this week and approve it with bipartisan support. President Obama has agreed to sign it.
But the legislation merely postpones a significant fight over spending that will involve partisan differences over spending levels, revenue increases and a push to defund parts of the Affordable Care Act as well as Planned Parenthood, which provides women’s health care services and abortions.
Before calling for a vote on the measure, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., blamed the need for a short-term measure on the Democrats, who earlier this year blocked individual spending bills from advancing on the Senate floor in an effort to force the GOP to raise domestic spending levels.
“They pursued a deliberate strategy to force our country into another of their unnecessary crises,” McConnell said. “This leaves the funding legislation before us as the only viable way forward in the short term.It does not represent my first, second, third, or twenty-third choice when it comes to funding the government. But it will keep the government open through the fall, and funded at the bipartisan level already agreed to by both parties, as we work on the way forward.”
Lawmakers rejected an attempt by Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, to amend the bill with a provision that would automatically trigger a temporary spending measure if the Senate fails to produce timely appropriations legislation each year.
“It provides an incentive for Congress to get its work done,” Portman said.
The short-term measure comes days after Senate Republicans tried to move a near-identical bill, but with a provision to defund Planned Parenthood, which has come under fire after undercover videos depicted organization officials discussing the sale of fetal body parts.
House lawmakers will take up the bill amid considerable strife within the Republican conference now that House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has announced he’ll retire on Oct. 30. Boehner is leaving in part to avoid turmoil instigated by conservatives in his conference who want the GOP to press harder to defund Planned Parenthood within the government spending legislation.
House lawmakers are advancing legislation that would both defund Obamacare and Planned Parenthood through the budget reconciliation process, which would allow the Senate to pass it with just 51 votes and not the typical 60 votes.
