The government has mere hours to avert a partial shutdown as Republicans scramble to advance a stop-gap spending bill that includes $5.8 billion for President Trump’s border wall.
Shortly before the Senate convened to vote on whether to advance the measure, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) called the billions of funding for the border wall “uncontroversial” and bashed the “far left” for opposing it.
Mid-afternoon Friday, the vote on the spending bill had temporarily been put on hold, pending the arrival of some senators in Washington D.C. to cast their vote.
The bill can advance with a simple majority of 51 votes. Then, it needs to meet a threshold of 60 votes for final approval — meaning some Democratic lawmakers would need to support it.
The bill is very unlikely to clear the full Senate. Even if more lawmakers return to Washington to vote in favor of the legislation, Democrats have repeatedly said they would vote against any spending bill that includes significant funding for a border wall. Some members of the president’s own party, like outgoing Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), also voted against advancing the spending bill Friday.
This is from a GOP senator. For what it's worth, the vote is still open at 43-45. Unchanged in almost an hour. https://t.co/PNiaTMd4V7
— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) December 21, 2018
Earlier this week, lawmakers were poised to make a deal to avert a shutdown. The Senate voted to approve a stopgap spending bill to fund the government until February that included no funding for Trump’s wall.
But after an emergency meeting with Republican House leaders, including outgoing Speaker Paul Ryan and members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, Trump announced he would veto any spending bill that came across his desk that did not include billions for the wall.
So Republican leaders pushed a new bill through the House that would make the president happy — and ultimately push the country toward the brink of the third government shutdown of the Trump administration.
President Trump has stated multiple times that he would shut the government down in order to get money for his border wall.
“I’ll be the one to shut it down. I will take the mantle. And I will shut it down for border security,” Trump said last week during a meeting with Democratic leaders.
“I’ve made my position very clear. Any measure that funds the government must include border security,” Trump said at the White House Thursday. “Walls work, whether we like it or not. They work better than anything.”
Despite his repeated claims that he would happily take the credit for a shutdown, Trump attempted to shift the blame back to Democrats in a series of ten Friday morning tweets.
“If enough Dems don’t vote, it will be a Democrat Shutdown,” the president tweeted.
Senator Mitch McConnell should fight for the Wall and Border Security as hard as he fought for anything. He will need Democrat votes, but as shown in the House, good things happen. If enough Dems don’t vote, it will be a Democrat Shutdown! House Republicans were great yesterday!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 21, 2018
Thanks to the upcoming holidays and the swearing in of the new Congress, a partial government shutdown could stretch on to at least January 3 if lawmakers do not reach a solution by midnight Friday.