Schumer locks in Thursday vote on bill to avert government shutdown

Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday night that the Senate had reached a deal to vote Thursday on a short-term government funding bill to avoid a shutdown. 

Under the agreement, locked in by Schumer, the Senate will vote on the stopgap continuing resolution (CR) on Thursday. Congress has until the end of the day Thursday to avert a government shutdown that would otherwise start Friday. 

“We are ready to move forward. We have an agreement on the CR, the continuing resolution to prevent a government shutdown and we should be voting on that tomorrow morning,” Schumer said from the Senate floor.

Schumer’s announcement comes after a day of behind-the-scenes haggling over votes on potential changes to the bill. As part of the deal announced by Schumer, the Senate will first vote on three GOP amendments to the government funding measure. 

The bill funds the government until Dec. 3, as well as providing emergency money for Afghan refugee resettlement and disaster relief. 

Democrats are stripping out language, which was in the bill when it passed the House, to suspend the debt ceiling through 2022 amid a heated fight with Republicans, who are refusing to help Democrats raise the nation’s borrowing limit.

Republicans are trying to force Democrats to lift it on their own under reconciliation, a budget process that lets them bypass the filibuster. Democratic leadership has so far ruled out that option. Congress has until Oct. 18 to avert a historic default, according to a letter this week from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. 

Because the Senate is making changes to the bill, it will then bounce back to the House, where lawmakers will need to approve it before midnight and get it to President Biden’s desk in order to avert a shutdown.  

“They will send us the CR tomorrow,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters on Wednesday, referring to the Senate.