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The House has passed the continuing resolution that will fund the government until the end of April, 326-96, in the last vote of this session. Probably. There's a major hiccup on the Senate side.
GOP leaders are confident the bill will head to the president’s desk in time to avoid a government shutdown on Saturday. The Senate is expected to take up the funding bill Friday, but delays are possible because of last-minute Democratic demands to protect retirement and health funds for thousands of coal miners.
A trio of Democratic senators from the heart of coal country are threatening to hold up the bill until miners receive a “permanent” fix for both healthcare and [pension] benefits. Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio) and Joe Donnelly (Ind.) warned they could keep Congress in town until Christmas.
The bill, released Tuesday night, includes an extension of healthcare benefits for miners and their families. That new funding would last until the short-term funding bill expires at the end of April, and it doesn’t include retirement benefits. […]
As Brown left a Democratic caucus meeting Thursday, he said Democrats are "united" behind demanding one year of healthcare benefits. Senate GOP leaders, however, have stood firm behind the current language.
The House Appropriations Chairman, Hal Rogers (R-KY), who also wanted this permanent fix for healthcare and retirement benefits says it's not in the bill because of Senate Republican leadership (maybe they're already trying to fuck over those three Democrats, all up for re-election in 2018). Rogers gave in because "we can’t let the government shut down." Sure they can, they've done it before. But it doesn't have to shut down, of course. The Senate can make changes before Saturday and the House can just approve them via unanimous consent. They wouldn't even have to return to DC to do it.
There's another issue: the "Buy America" provision that House Republican leadership stripped from a second bill that will come up next week on water resources. That's the provision requiring that American-made iron and steel products be used in infrastructure projects. Sen. Chuck Schumer, de facto Democratic leader, said that he's going to vote against the spending bill unless these two issues are addressed.
How telling is it that when Republicans shut down government it’s to try to take health care away from people, and when Democrats threaten to do it it’s to actually help people get health care? And jobs and pensions, to boot.