U.S. SENATE TO VOTE AT NOON ON WHETHER TO END GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
The Senate is
scheduled to have a key vote at noon Monday on a bill to reopen the government
and fund it for three weeks, though it's unclear if this plan will win over
enough Democrats to pass.
The vote will come
several hours after the workday for hundreds of thousands of furloughed federal
employees was supposed to have begun, and comes three days after the government
officially shut down Friday at midnight. Many of the shutdown's full effects were
less visible during the weekend, when much of the federal workforce would
typically be off anyway.
The vote was moved
from 1 a.m. ET Monday to noon after it became clear Democrats would block the
spending bill over disagreements on a variety of issues, most notably what do
about young people affected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
program.
Senate Majority Whip
John Cornyn of Texas said he thought Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of
New York agreed to push back the vote to give his caucus "a chance to
chew" on a GOP proposal to break the impasse.
"It's better to
have a successful vote tomorrow at noon than a failed vote tonight,"
Cornyn told reporters.
But a top Democratic
leadership aide disputed Cornyn's assertion and said unless Republicans make
significant changes to their offer, Democrats will likely reject it when the
vote comes. The Democratic aide did say, however, that progress was made in the
lengthy negotiations that took place late Sunday night. But more talks are
needed.
GOP Sen. Jeff Flake
told reporters Sunday night a bipartisan group of senators will meet again at
10 a.m. ET Monday ahead of the noon vote.
He said he was now a
"yes" on the funding bill and it was his hope that six or seven more
moderate Democrats would come on board to get the continuing resolution over
the finish line -- to 60 votes -- to end the shutdown.
He said the
Democrats still want something tangible on DACA but said it was problematic
because it could run into the February 8 funding deadline.
He argued that they
won a concession from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that he isn't
requiring President Donald Trump to sign off before an immigration bill moves
to the floor.
"For the first
time, we have the majority leader move off of we can only move something if the
President agrees," Flake told reporters.
Despite Schumer's
rejection of the deal, one senior GOP aide involved in the talks told CNN
Republican leaders think they have a shot of picking off enough Democrats to
move forward.
While McConnell's
commitment falls far short of what the vast majority of Democrats want, there's
some GOP hope they can get enough to move forward -- and notably split the
caucus.
"This is their
off-ramp," the aide said. "We'll see if they dig in or if they want a
way out."
The aide also noted
talks will continue and may yield more progress in the meantime.
Earlier Sunday,
Trump called for Senate Republicans to change the chamber's rules to resolve
the funding impasse as the government shutdown continued into its second day. He
tweeted a call for McConnell to invoke the so-called "nuclear option"
and thereby remove leverage for Senate Democrats.
Senate rules impose
a threshold of 60 votes to break a filibuster, and Senate Republicans currently
hold a slim majority of 51 votes, meaning even if they can unite their members,
they need nine more votes to end debate. The White House is calling for the
Senate to change its rules and move the threshold to a simple majority of 51
votes.
A spokesman for
McConnell said in response to the tweet that the Senate Republican Conference
does not support changing the 60-vote rule, a reiteration of Republican Senate
leadership's already-stated opposition to the move Trump has called for over
the past year.
Source: AFP
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