Senate leader Schumer tees up vote on stopgap spending bill, ups pressure on Speaker Johnson

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer announced on Thursday that the Senate would be voting on a stopgap bill to avert a partial government shutdown next week ahead of a looming deadline to fund the government.

The Senate’s plan to move on the stopgap bill comes as House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, has previously vowed to never pass one again and move the annual spending bills individually.

But neither the House nor the Senate have scheduled votes on the remaining annual spending bills that need to pass to beat a Jan. 19 deadline for a partial government shutdown.

Mr. Schumer, New York Democrat, said on the Senate floor that lawmakers should expect to vote on the stopgap bill by Tuesday.

He noted that while appropriators in the Senate and House are working quickly to finish spending work after getting a new $1.66 trillion top-line spending number, there simply is not enough time to get that work done before Jan. 19.

“Unfortunately, it has become crystal clear that it will take more than a week to finish the appropriations process,” Mr. Schumer said. “So today I am taking the first procedural step for the Senate to pass a temporary funding extension of government funding so the government does not shut down on Jan. 19.”

The exact details of the Senate bill were not revealed. Lawmakers in the GOP-run House and Democratic-run Senate have stressed that a short-term bill extending funding until early March should give appropriations enough time to finish spending work.

Mr. Schumer said that he was in talks with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, to shore up support for the bill. Mr. McConnell said earlier this week that a stopgap would be needed.

In the House, Mr. Johnson struggled to quell rebellions in his GOP conference Wednesday when a group of 13 Republicans paralyzed the chamber by blocking a trio of GOP bills to protest the speaker’s handling of government spending.

Many of those same Republicans, along with the majority of the more than 30-member House Freedom Caucus, have signaled that they would not fund the government unless the Senate and White House adopt tougher border policies to quell the massive influx of migrants.

Mr. Schumer said that members of Mr. Johnson’s right flank pressing for a partial shutdown were jeopardizing nutrition programs, veterans’ access to benefits and a litany of other government programs.

“There are those on the hard right over in the House who think they can bully their colleagues and the House and the country into a shutdown,” Mr. Schumer said. “Amazingly, this band of hard-right extremists actually say a shutdown would be a good thing.”