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The Senate is in for a rare weekend session as the chamber remains in limbo while lawmakers try to find a way out of the government shutdown.
Behind the scenes, appropriators are cooking up a trio of spending bills to attach to the House-passed continuing resolution (CR), along with an extension to the bill that would, if passed, reopen government until December or January.
Whether a vote on the revamped CR and spending package happens Saturday is still up in the air. Senate Democrats, as they’ve done 14 times previously, are likely to block it. It all comes as the upper chamber is scheduled for a week-long recess to coincide with Veterans’ Day.
DEMS BLOCK GOP BILL ENSURING FEDERAL WORKER, MILITARY PAYCHECKS CONTINUE DURING SHUTDOWN
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., wants to reignite the government funding process, but Senate Democrats appear unwilling to support his effort. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
But Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., now wants to keep lawmakers in town until the shutdown ends.
When asked if there would be a vote on the plan, Thune said it would be ideal to have the package on the floor, but that “we’ve got to have votes to actually pass it.” Republicans are reticent to putting the CR out again just to see it fail.
“I’ve been talking all morning with some of the folks that are involved with the meeting, and I think we’re getting close to having it ready,” Thune said. “We just need to get the text out there.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus, freshly emboldened by sweeping Election Day victories earlier in the week, are sticking by their newly released plan that would extend the expiring Obamacare subsidies by one year, and create a bipartisan working group to negotiate next steps after the government reopens.
But Senate Republicans immediately rejected the idea; Thune called it a “non-starter,” while others in the GOP were angered by the…
