Senate rejects competing bills to fund government, increasing risk of shutdown on Oct. 1

WASHINGTON AP The Senate rejected competing measures on Friday to fund federal agencies for a insufficient weeks when the new budget year begins on Oct increasing prospects for a partial administration shutdown on that date Leaders of the two parties sought to blame the other side for the standoff Democrats accused Republicans of not negotiating with them to address various of their priorities on healthcare care as part of the funding measure even though they knew particular Democratic votes would be needed to get a bill to the president s desk Republicans commented Democrats were making demands that would dramatically increase spending and were not germane to the core issue of keeping agencies fully running for a short period of time while negotiations continued on a full-year spending measure The Republican bill is a clean nonpartisan short-term continuing resolution to fund the administration to give us time to do the full appropriations process And the Democrat bill is the exact opposite Senate Majority Leader John Thune R-S D commented shortly before the votes It s what you might call not a clean CR a dirty CR laden down with partisan policies and appeals to Democrats leftist base The Democratic proposal would extend enhanced medical insurance subsidies set to expire at the end of the year plus reverse Medicaid cuts that were included in Republicans big tax breaks and spending cuts bill enacted earlier this year The American people will look at what Republicans are doing look at what Democrats are doing and it will be clear that general sentiment will be on our side commented Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York who has repeatedly threatened a shutdown if fitness care isn t addressed The Senate action came after the House earlier in the day passed the Republican-led funding bill The measure would extend governing body funding generally at current levels for seven weeks The bill would also add about million in safeguard funding for lawmakers and members of the Supreme Court and executive branch in the wake of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk The vote was - Rep Jared Golden of Maine was the lone Democratic member to sponsorship the bill House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana commented he knew he had insufficient votes to spare as he sought to persuade fellow Republicans to vote for the funding patch something a large number of in his conference have routinely opposed in past budget fights But this time GOP members see a chance to portray the Democrats as responsible for a shutdown The ball is in Chuck Schumer s court I hope he does the right thing I hope he does not choose to shut the executive down and inflict pain on the American people Johnson revealed President Donald Trump had urged House Republicans to pass the bill and put the burden on Democrats to oppose it GOP leaders often need Trump s help to win over holdouts on regulation Every House Republican should UNIFY and VOTE YES Trump mentioned on his social media site Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries D-N Y declared that in opposing the continuing resolution Democrats were working to protect the robustness care of the American people He declared that with Republicans controlling the White House and both branches of Congress Republicans will own a regime shutdown Period Full stop The Senate moved fast after the House vote to take up the measure plus the Democratic counter Both fell short of the votes needed for passage Now it s unclear how things will shake out Senators could then potentially leave town until Sept one day before the shutdown deadline The Senate has a scheduled recess next week because of Rosh Hashana the Jewish new year Meanwhile Johnson stated Republicans were discussing whether to stay back in their home districts through the rest of September essentially forcing the Senate to approve the House-passed measure or threat a shutdown He declared lawmakers have a lot of work to do in their districts Democrats on both sides of the Capitol are watching Schumer closely after his last-minute decision in March to vote with Republicans to keep the executive open Schumer argued then that a shutdown would be damaging and would give Trump and his White House freedom to make more cabinet cuts Multiple on the left revolted with particular advocates calling for his resignation The vote in the spring also caused a temporary schism with Jeffries who opposed that particular GOP spending bill and stated he would not be complicit with Schumer s vote The two Democratic leaders now say they are united and Schumer says things have changed since March The general is more wary of Trump and Republicans Schumer says after the passage of Medicaid cuts Greater part Democrats appear to be backing Schumer s demand that there be negotiations on the bill and endorsement his threats of a shutdown even as it is unclear how they would get out of it Look the president revealed really boldly don t even talk to Democrats Unless he s forgotten that you need a supermajority to pass a budget in the Senate that s obviously his signal he wants a shutdown mentioned Sen Tammy Baldwin D-Wis While the Democratic measure to fund the governing body had no chance of passage it does give Democrats a way to show voters their focus on cutting healthcare care costs Unless Congress act tax credits going to low- and middle-income people who purchase fitness insurance through the Affordable Care Act will expire That will mean a big increase in premiums for millions of Americans There are particular thing we have to address The fitness insurance ACA is going to hammer millions of people in the country including in red states announced Sen Angus King I-Maine To me that can t be put off Republicans have explained the tax credit issue can be dealt with later this year They re also using Schumer s previous arguments against shutdowns to make the scenario he s playing politics Democrats voted in favor of clean CRs no fewer than times during the Biden administration Thune explained Yet now that Republicans are offering a clean CR it s somehow a no-go It s funny how that happens Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this assessment