Senate

GOP senator flips on House funding plan

by Jordain Carney - 01/18/18 10:47 PM ET

Sen. Mike Rounds (S.D.), one of three GOP senators opposed to the House government funding bill, said Thursday night that he will support the legislation after cutting a deal on defense spending.

“I will vote for CR cloture because we’re moving to regular order on the defense appropriations bill,” Rounds said on his way out of the Capitol, referring to the stopgap funding measure known as a continuing resolution, or CR.

Rounds added that he had been able to get a deal “and part of the deal is we’re going to move to regular order on the defense appropriations bill.”

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The decision is a reversal from Thursday morning when Rounds said he could not support the House bill in its “current form.”

But House conservatives got GOP leadership in that chamber to agree to take up military spending within 10 days, roughly by the time of President Trump’s State of the Union address.

Rounds added that additionally there is a deal that the Senate will take up military spending within at least a month.

“We have an agreement here with leadership that we will take it up within four weeks, if not sooner,” he said.

In addition to Rounds, GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Rand Paul (Ky.) have said they will oppose the House plan. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) also voted against taking up the bill on Thursday.

It’s unclear if leadership has managed to flip any other GOP senators. Though Paul and Lee are perennial “no” votes, Graham had pointed to a continuing resolution’s impact on the military as one reason he was opposing the House bill.

With Rounds poised to vote “yes,” Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will now need 11 Democratic senators to support ending debate on the House bill if he wants to overcome a 60-vote procedural hurdle.

But a Senate Democratic aide said earlier Thursday that the caucus has the votes to kill the bill, as they angle to get Republicans back to the negotiating table on a myriad of issues including health care and immigration.