The Senate on Thursday passed a stand-alone stopgap spending bill to keep the government afloat, sending it to the House for final approval with just hours to spare before government funding runs out at midnight.
The bill, which will fund the government through Dec. 3, follows a Republican filibuster on a bill that sought to pair the temporary funding with a suspension of the nation’s debt limit. Senate Republicans refused to help allow more borrowing ahead of President Biden’s more than $4 trillion of proposed new spending.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said that what Republicans wanted all along was a “clean” funding bill.
“That’s exactly what we’ll pass today,” said the Kentucky Republican. “We are able to fund the government today because the majority accepted reality.”
The Democrat-run Congress still must address the debt limit by Oct. 18, when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the government will run out of money to pay the country’s obligations.
The “clean” bill also includes $6.3 billion for the relocation of Afghan refugees and $28.6 billion in federal disaster relief in response to recent hurricanes and wildfires.
Former President Donald Trump chimed in just before the vote on the amendment for Afghan refugees, which he said amounted to “a major immigration rewrite that allows [President Biden] to bring anyone he wants from Afghanistan for the next year” and allow Mr. Biden to “fly them to your community with free welfare and government-issued IDs.”
“Republicans can’t let this happen,” Mr. Trump said. “This is a further insult after Biden’s humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan, that needlessly killed 13 Americans.”
Republicans offered three amendments, including a modification to eligibility requirements for Afghan refugees to receive benefits, offered by Sen. Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican. Mr. Cotton’s amendment failed in a 50-50 vote.
Sen. Roger Marshall, Kansas Republican, offered an amendment to block federal funding for vaccine mandates and Sen. Mike Braun, Indiana Republican, proposed halting lawmakers’ pay if they fail to pass a budget in any year by Oct. 1. Both amendments, which required 60 votes to pass, also failed.
The Senate approved the full bill in a 65 to 35 vote.
The House is expected to approve the stopgap funding measure later Thursday, with President Biden’s signature expected soon thereafter.
While the government funding crisis is likely averted, Congress remains in a stalemate over the debt limit.
Ms. Yellen warned of a financial crisis if the debt limit isn’t raised by Oct. 18. A U.S. default on its debt would be unprecedented.
The U.S. national debt currently tops $28.8 trillion.
Democrats pressed for a bipartisan vote on the debt ceiling and warned that failing to do so would have disastrous consequences. Congress raised the debt ceiling three times under a Republican majority in the Senate during Mr. Trump’s tenure.
Democrats argue that the cap needs to be raised to accommodate spending under the Trump administration, rather than planned spending under Mr. Biden.
On Wednesday, the House passed a standalone measure to suspend the debt limit on a party-line 219 to 212 vote. Senate Republicans are expected to block the legislation, insisting that Democrats raise the debt limit using the same procedure that will allow them to pass with a party-line vote Mr. Biden’s $3.5 trillion social welfare and climate change bill.
“Just as our Republican colleagues realize that a government shutdown would be catastrophic, they should realize that a default on the national debt would be even worse,” said Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat. “Unfortunately, Republicans spent the week solidifying themselves as the party of default, the party that says America doesn’t pay its bills, the party that would send our economy into unknown and dangerous territory.”
Republicans want Democrats to fully own the debt hike, in light of the massive spending they have in store.
Democrats, who control the White House and both chambers of Congress, can pass the debt ceiling package through a process known as budget reconciliation, which allows spending and revenue measures to avoid the 60-vote filibuster hurdle and pass with a simple 51-vote majority.
That is how they intend to pass Mr. Biden’s massive spending bill for anti-poverty, education, health care and climate change programs.
The budget reconciliation process has been used only a few times to raise the debt limit. Adding the measure to the $3.5 trillion in spending would unlock more division among Democrats. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, told reporters Wednesday that including the debt ceiling suspension in the reconciliation bill is off the table.
• Joseph Clark can be reached at jclark@washingtontimes.com.
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