Schumer says Senate stopgap will pass House while Senate GOP mull border amendments to bill

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Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer’s motto for avoiding a partial government shutdown is “bipartisanship,” and he believed that the Senate’s stopgap bill could pass through a divided House.

The only thing standing in his way, according to Mr. Schumer, is House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who said there wasn’t much support for the bipartisan legislation on his side of the Capitol.

Mr. McCarthy, California Republican, plans to send a GOP-built stopgap bill to the Senate on Friday.

“He ought to be focusing on the [stopgap] and not shutting down the government instead of just playing complete obeisance to the hard right in a partisan way that will lead to a shutdown,” said Mr. Schumer, New York Democrat. “The bottom line is if they put our bill on the floor it would pass.” 

The Senate advanced its version of a stopgap bill through a test vote Tuesday, leapfrogging the House in the process. The Senate is starkly different from what’s cooking in the Republican-run House.

The Senate’s legislation would keep the government funded at the current fiscal year levels until Nov. 17 and include over $6 billion in Ukraine funding and $6 billion in disaster relief.

Many House Republicans have spurned more money for Ukraine, especially in a measure to keep the government open. The conference has also shifted en masse to include the House’s top border bill, the Secure the Border Act, as part of the temporary funding — something lacking in the Democrat-run Senate’s stopgap bill.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, supports the Senate’s legislation. He said the package “makes sense” for the Senate and the country. 

He would not weigh in on the House’s resistance to the upper chamber’s legislation. 

“I don’t want to give the speaker any advice about how to run the House, particularly through you,” Mr. McConnell said.

However, several Senate Republicans have expressed interest in amending their chamber’s bill to include border security provisions. 

Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, said amendments are in the works to “stop the flow” of migrants and drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. 

With three days left until the deadline for Congress to keep the government open, a shutdown appears unavoidable.

“You can’t do this in a partisan way,” Mr. Schumer said. “We’re waiting for a bipartisan approach to come from Speaker McCarthy. If he doesn’t come with a bipartisan approach, if he continues partisanship, He’s going to cause a shutdown. He knows that.”