US Govt shuts down after Senate blocks short-term spending bill

With less than two hours to go before a deadline to avert a government shutdown, 48 senators blocked a four-week government spending extension, causing the government to partially shutdown at midnight, in the US.
Forty-four Democrats and four Republicans voted against the short-term spending bill that passed the House on Thursday evening, many of them saying they could not vote for a measure that does nothing for the 700,000 undocumented young people President Donald Trump has put at risk of losing protection from deportation. The bill, which needed 60 votes to proceed, failed in a 50-49 vote, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) voting against it for procedural reasons.
Leaders in both chambers haven’t settled on a Plan B. There’s no deal to help so-called Dreamers and no agreement on an even shorter-term bill to extend funding while they work on one. There’s not even certainty about what Trump actually wants. Earlier in the day, he rejected an offer from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to fund his border wall, the Democrat said. Senators remained in the chamber discussing a path forward but didn’t find one before the deadline.
Eventually, the Senate adjourned without a deal and will have to return later Saturday.
It will be difficult to reach a long-term deal to reopen the government. Democrats want protections for Dreamers first, but White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that’s not something the administration will discuss until government funding is approved.
“We will not negotiate the status of unlawful immigrants while Democrats hold our lawful citizens hostage over their reckless demands,” she said in a statement just before midnight. “This is the behavior of obstructionist losers, not legislators. When Democrats start paying our armed forces and first responders, we will reopen negotiations on immigration reform.”
It wasn’t just Democrats who voted against the bill. Four Republicans also opposed the four-week funding measure: Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky. John McCain of Arizona was not present.
Five Democrats crossed the aisle to vote for the bill: Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Doug Jones of Alabama, Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Joe Donnelly of Indiana.
Republicans also tried to shift blame to the Democrats for a potential shutdown by adding a six-year extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to their short-term bill. Then GOP leaders in the Senate decided to hold a vote on that funding measure even though it was clear minutes before that it didn’t have the support the pass ― essentially daring Democrats to vote no.
Negotiations over a last-minute deal to extend funding for the government through Feb. 8 ― one week earlier than the House-passed bill ― collapsed shortly before midnight after Democrats were unable to secure a commitment from House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to attach a DACA measure to a must-pass government funding bill next month, according to senators of both parties. Without the commitment, Democrats would have no guarantee that Republicans would vote on DACA before the program expires in March.
McConnell criticized Democrats after the vote for “shoehorning of illegal immigration into this debate.”
Senators are expected to return to work Saturday in hopes of reaching a deal by Monday, when most federal employees return to work.
Trump necessitated a legislative fix for so-called Dreamers when he ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in September, putting them at risk of losing work permits and deportation relief.
Republicans insisted there’s no urgency on immigration. But Democrats, at the urging of Dreamers themselves, stood firm, even though many of them voted for a spending bill in December.
At a time when Trump is simultaneously insisting he wants an immigration deal and making demands that Democrats find difficult to stomach ― reportedly discussing immigrants in racist terms and insulting the lawmakers he is negotiating with ― they argued that tying DACA to government funding is the best chance they have
to do so.