By: Isaac Dillard
Potential chaos on Capitol Hill was quelled by a last-minute bill passed by an unusual team working together.
Facing a possible government shutdown, the Senate passed a 6-month spending bill, that will keep the government operating until September. The passage of the bill was the most mundane part of the bill’s process, as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have gone back and forth on what government spending should look like.
House Republicans proposed the bill which immediately prompted stiff opposition from Democrats. The left’s main concern was the lack of input they were able to provide to the bill and the lack of specificity in where the money was going. Many Democrats said this bill was “a blank check” for President Trump’s agenda.
The bill swiftly moved through the House thanks to a Republican majority but faced a major hurdle in the Senate, the filibuster. The filibuster is a political tactic used to delay the legislature from being voted into law. 60 votes are required to break the filibuster and trigger a majority vote to pass the bill.
This image was created using Google’s Gemini AI
Even though Republicans also have a majority in the Senate, it is not large enough to break the filibuster without Democratic support. The conversation leading up to the vote indicated that Democrats were not going to allow the filibuster to be broken and use the government shutdown to negotiate another piece of legislation.
The tides changed after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer gave an eleventh-hour speech to his colleagues, where he encouraged them to pass the bill because a government shutdown would be detrimental. Schumer’s comments were met with criticism from other high-ranking officials in the Democratic Party.
Schumer’s speech rallied enough support for 10 Democrats to side with Republicans and break the filibuster. The spending bill passed with a 54-46 vote.
The passage of the spending bill highlighted the united front Republicans are presenting to Congress and the growing divide in the Democratic Party.
“The constituents I represent need Democrats to stand up to this rogue administration,” Democratic Representative Steven Horsford said. “What they got from Senate Democrats today was capitulation instead.”
The spending bill will fund the government until the end of September. Congress will work over the next few months to construct a reconciliation bill that will finish the spending budget for this fiscal year.