The bill received bipartisan support, with 10 Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, crossing party lines in a key procedural vote

WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): The Senate passed a bill Friday, March 14 evening to fund the government into the fall, avoiding a shutdown just hours before a midnight deadline. The stopgap measure, which funds the government through September 30, now heads to the desk of President Donald Trump, who is expected to sign it.

Earlier, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and nine others crossed party lines to advance the bill in a key procedural vote, despite intensifying pressure from across the Democratic Party. The bill passed by a vote of 54 to 46.

Earlier in the week, top House Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, led a fierce whip operation against the bill, ultimately losing just one of their members on the vote. But it was not enough to sink the bill, which passed the House Tuesday.

Jeffries would not answer Friday, March 14, when asked whether he had lost confidence in Schumer, with whom he diverged on the funding issue. “Next question,” Jeffries told reporters.

Trump praised Schumer for announcing he would support the measure. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was the only Republican to vote against the bill.

Outside of Schumer’s leadership team, many Senate Democrats as well as House Democrats are seething at his move, which they saw as a capitulation in the party’s first real leverage point in Trump’s second term.

The Senate Democratic leader has argued his party had only bad options when it came to shutting down the government – possibly for months – to challenge Trump, or accepting a GOP bill that Democrats have warned would cut spending to programs like veterans’ health care or Washington, DC, firefighters and police.

“I believe it is the best way to minimize the harm that the Trump administration will do to the American people,” Schumer argued in defense of his decision during remarks on the Senate floor. “Clearly, this is a Hobson’s choice. The CR is a bad bill, but as bad as the CR is, I believe allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option.”

Republicans and Democrats must now negotiate a time agreement to vote on final passage of the package before the midnight deadline, all while Schumer and his leadership continue to face intense anger from the Democratic base.

The initial vote, while procedural, had been closely watched by Democrats across the country, who saw it as a test of their party leaders’ willingness to fight Trump.

At the urging of prominent Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, voters had been flooding senators’ offices with calls urging them to block the bill and take on Trump for his dismantling of the federal government. Ultimately, many Democrats believe, Schumer failed that test.

The New York Democrat’s strategy has faced fierce blowback from all corners of the Democratic Party, including in his own chamber, though no senators have publicly said they would challenge his leadership over the move.
(Source: CNN)