Senate passes GOP funding bill to avert a government shutdown
The GOP-controlled Senate will press forward with a procedural vote to advance a stopgap funding bill to avert a government shutdown before a midnight deadline.
WASHINGTON — The Senate passed a six-month funding bill Friday to avert a government shutdown hours ahead of the midnight deadline, sending it to President Donald Trump to sign into law.
The vote was 54-46, with two Democrats joining all but one Republican in support of the measure. Earlier Friday, the bill cleared a key procedural hurdle with the help of 10 Democrats in a 62-38 vote. Sixty votes were needed to defeat a Democratic filibuster.
The votes came after a dramatic 48-hour period during which Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., broke with most House and Senate Democrats, announcing he would support moving forward on the bill one day after he declared it didn't have the votes. Schumer ultimately voted no on final passage of the legislation.
The bill, which cleared the House on a party-line vote earlier this week, will keep the government funded through Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year.
Under pressure from his left flank and House Democrats to block the GOP funding measure, Schumer had kept his cards close to the vest about his shutdown strategy throughout the week.
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