Government funding bill stalled by amendment squabbles in Senate as deadline nears

The $1.2 trillion funding package has hit a snag in the Senate, and negotiations to pass the bill before the midnight deadline to fund the government are not going well. 

Senate Republicans are pressuring Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, to allow for at least a dozen amendments to be voted on. 

But the top Senate Democrat is not budging, and time is rapidly dwindling for the upper chamber to pass the funding package and avert a partial shutdown. 

Some of the amendments have to do with border security, like the Laken Riley Act, and Republicans contend that Mr. Schumer is shielding vulnerable Senate Democrats from having to take a hard vote. 

“I think as a general rule, they just have a lot of people they’re trying to shield from taking hard votes, and that’s the season we’re in,” said Senate Minority Whip John Thune, South Dakota Republican. “But it’s unfortunate because you’ve got a really big bill that hasn’t had an opportunity for any amendments in the Senate.”

Negotiations over moving ahead with the package have been going on for hours, but little progress has been made. 

“They weren’t quite as amenable as we expected them to be,” said Sen. Mike Lee, Utah Republican. 

Though some of the amendments have to do with border security, which would make them germane to the funding package because it includes the Department of Homeland Security funding measure and requires a simple majority to pass them, Mr. Lee expected that they would be stripped out and held to a 60-vote margin. 

Mr. Lee described a scenario in which an amendment package is produced, countered by removing the border amendments, and then objected to by Republicans, that would trigger cloture, a Senate procedure that would effectively force a vote on the funding package on Sunday. 

And if any amendments were to pass in the Senate, the bill would have to be sent back to the House, where lawmakers have already left town. 

While lawmakers still have time to hammer out a deal and pass the package, either Friday night or before an expected cloture vote, optimism was waning outside of the Senate chamber. 

“Looks to me like we’re heading toward a short-term shutdown and a vote on Sunday,” said Sen. John Kennedy, Louisiana Republican. “But that’s Chuck Schumer’s choice.”