(Yuri Gripas/Reuters)
As David Waldman
explained in Today in Congress this morning, a federal government shutdown looms. The short recap: the House passed a continuing appropriations bill on Thursday that they knew the Senate would reject because it makes emergency funding for disaster relief contingent on spending cuts, and targeted a successful green manufacturing program for those cuts. As promised, the Senate rejected that appropriations bill and the House skipped town anyway, setting us on the road for a shutdown.
Today the Senate will work on its amendments to that appropriations bill, bringing a cloture vote to the floor to start work on amending that House bill, or as David explains "the Senate will temporarily 'agree' to the House's amendment in order to give itself a chance to amend the bill all over again by substituting an entirely different text for what's in there now."
The amendment Reid will likely offer meets the House part way. Instead of insisting on the $7 billion disaster aid package the Senate has already passed as a stand-alone measure, the package will include the same $3.65 billion the House included, without the offset. It's as of yet unclear whether Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will be able to muster his Republican caucus to vote against Reid's effort and thereby scuttle emergency disaster aid.
At least one Senate Republican right now, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, is expected to back Reid’s effort, his spokeswoman said, but others who supported a nearly $7 billion package of disaster aid are either opposed to the latest push or are non-committal. With at least three Republicans who backed the $7 billion package expected to oppose the plan, Reid cannot afford to lose another GOP vote or he’ll fall short of the 60 needed to break a GOP filibuster Monday evening.[...]
"I had a couple of Republicans come to me today from states that are in disaster areas and said if it's in the only bill in town, and FEMA is going to run out of money, I have to vote for it," New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the No. 3 Democrat, said Friday. "So let's see what happens."[...]
Those conservative senators who opposed advancing the House plan included Marco Rubio of Florida and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, two senators who supported the nearly $7 billion disaster aid package that passed the Senate earlier this month.
Another conservative senator who backed the $7 billion for more FEMA aid was David Vitter of Louisiana, but he said he would oppose the latest Reid package.
That means Reid cannot lose another Republican who voted in favor of the disaster-relief package. The other senators include Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada, who faces a potentially tough reelection bid next year, as well as Maine moderates Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Roy Blunt of Missouri and John Hoeven of North Dakota. Aides said Sunday their bosses were still reviewing the package, or they couldn’t be reached for comment. Those senators all voted to advance the House Republican plan last week.
The Senate has scheduled its vote for 5:30 today. If it fails, FEMA has to freeze operations and a government shutdown is much likelier.