The Senate will hold a cloture vote shortly on the House appropriations resolution jammed to the Senate last week. Today's vote is on
whether to "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."
Democrats have found their spine on holding this line against the Republicans in part because they have the moral high ground, and in part because they recognize that the Republican obstruction and hostage-taking over critical funding has damaged Republicans. They are operating right now on a bit of luck in the shutdown fight, and some breathing room.
A key reason Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) delayed a vote on legislation to fund the government and re-up FEMA's disaster relief account until Monday is that, as of last week, FEMA was set to run out of funds late Monday or Tuesday. Schedule a vote so close to the deadline, and it focuses peoples' minds (Republicans, specifically) on just how reckless their political tactics are.
But it turns out FEMA's got a bit more money than expected, and may be able to hold out until Thursday or Friday, according to a Department of Homeland Security aide. And that changes both the policy urgency of the ongoing government shutdown fight, and legislative politics more broadly on Capitol Hill.[...]
And if the impasse isn't broken soon, the stakes remain very high. "If Congress does allow the balance of the Disaster Relief Fund to reach zero, there are laws that govern federal agency operations in the absence of funding," said FEMA spokesperson Rachel Racusen. "Under law, FEMA would be forced to temporarily shut down disaster recovery and assistance operations, including financial assistance to individuals until Congress appropriated more funds. This would include all past and current FEMA recovery operations."[...]
Now that FEMA's got a bit more time, so too does Reid—to build political pressure on Republicans to come back to the negotiating table and deal in good faith, and to make it clear that Republican intransigence could lead not just to a lapse in FEMA funds, but to the halting of nearly all government services. And if FEMA can make things last through the end of the week (which is also the end of the fiscal year) the whole debate changes because the GOP's legislation offset money that won't have to be spent anyhow.
That additional time probably also allows Senate Republicans to be more intransigent, and more likely to vote against this cloture vote. But having House Republican leadership AWOL this week while the Senate tries to make this work isn't going to help Republicans in turning public opinion to their side. It also means the only ones in town to spin the media their way are the Democrats.
The voting is slated to start at 5:30 ET. As always, you can watch on C-SPAN2.
2:32 PM PT: As noted in the comments, Sen. Mary Landrieu was particularly strong in her statement on the vote. David Dayen says that this comment of hers is the whole point of this fight: "We cannot have a budget meeting every time there's a disaster in America."
2:45 PM PT: Punctual as ever, the Senate is. If you're just tuning in, no, they haven't started voting yet.
3:03 PM PT: Nope, they're still not voting.
3:17 PM PT: Okay, now they're voting.
3:21 PM PT: In beginning this vote, Reid filed CR plan, a "Plan B," but its not clear yet what is in it.
3:32 PM PT: The votes that will follow this CR, assuming it loses: a clean continuing appropriations with no supplemental funding that would extend for six weeks, and a second vote that would extend funding for just a week, giving the House time to come back and pass the six-week extension. This apparently is assuming the scenario discussed here by TPM's Brian Beutler, that FEMA has just enough money to squeeze out the rest of the month (and the fiscal year), and will thus not need a supplemental appropriation.
3:32 PM PT: PS, the info above on the two votes that will occur after this one comes from a Senate leadership aide.
3:40 PM PT: AP says "Senate leaders reach pact to avoid partial government shutdown." No more details than what's sketched out here, yet.
3:50 PM PT: Cloture fails 54- 35.