Time remains short to avoid the federal government's fourth partial shutdown in a decade, which will begin at 12:01 a.m. ET on Sunday unless the Democratic-majority Senate passes the bill and President Joe Biden signs it into law in time.
The House bill gives them a pay raise for CoLA, and doesn't include support for Ukraine. They'd promised earlier this year that every bill would have 72 hours to be read and reviewed; they introduced this one and called for a vote minutes later. Fuck the Republicans.
I fear this is going to be a turning point for the party to turn fully against Ukraine. McConnell apparently argued forcefully in favor of keeping the funding intact, but got overruled by most of the caucus, including Thune (one of the top candidates to replace him). And this is the Senate Republicans we're talking about, the House caucus is even more openly antagonistic.
Keeping Democratic control of the White House and Congress next year could be key to Ukraine defeating Russia.
Seven senators — John Kennedy (R-LA), Richard Shelby (R-AL), Steve Daines (R-MT), John Hoeven (R-ND), John Thune (R-SD), Jerry Moran (R-KS), and Ron Johnson (R-WI) — and one House member, Kay Granger (R-TX), are all in Moscow over the Fourth of July holiday this week for talks with Russian lawmakers and officials, according to reporting from the Washington Post, NPR, and investigative reporter Julia Davis.
A month later, you had Rand Paul in Russia on Trump's orders.
”Federal agencies had already drawn up detailed plans that spell out what services would continue, like airport screening and border patrols, and what must shut down, like scientific research and nutrition aid to 7 million poor mothers.”
Thank goodness they had their priorities straight. Those poor mothers can fuckin’ starve as long as we can continue our useless airport screenings.
The House voted 335-91 to fund the government for another 45 days, with more Democrats than Republicans supporting it.
Some 209 Democrats supported the bill, far more than the 126 Republicans who did so, and Democrats described the result as a win.
Democratic Representative Don Beyer said: “I am relieved that Speaker McCarthy folded and finally allowed a bipartisan vote at the eleventh hour on legislation to stop Republicans’ rush to a disastrous shutdown."
McCarthy's shift won the support of top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell, who previously had backed a similar measure that was moving through the Senate with broad bipartisan support, even though the House version dropped aid for Ukraine.
"I want to be the adult in the room, go ahead and try," McCarthy told reporters. "And you know what? If I have to risk my job for standing up for the American public, I will do that."
The funding fight focuses on a relatively small slice of the $6.4 trillion U.S. budget for this fiscal year. Lawmakers are not considering cuts to popular benefit programs such as Social Security and Medicare.
The gorilla in the room nobody seems to want to mention is that this sort of headline shouldn't even have a reason to exist. The budget should not be up for any kind of contention. Holding the operation of this country for ransom should be treated as a crime against every tax paying citizen and we need a way to hold them responsible