Senate to vote on stopgap bill to avoid a government shutdown this week

The Senate will vote soon

Frank Thorp V

The Senate has a deal to vote on the CR tonight, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on the floor.

First, it will vote on an amendment from Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., then the CR.

Senate may still vote tonight as deal over Sen. Wicker’s hold nears

Wicker said moments ago that he’s “close” to reaching a resolution to end his hold on the CR. Wicker was on his way to meet with Senate leadership, including majority and minority leaders Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell, and told NBC News he feels “hopeful.”

Wicker is asking for an assurance that the National Defense Authorization Act will go to a conference committee to work out differences between the House and the Senate, a source familiar with his request said. 

The Senate continues to be in limbo, and it’s unclear whether it will vote on the CR tonight or push it to tomorrow morning. Senators NBC News spoke to this evening haven’t been able to provide much clarity about timing but have all been confident that the CR will pass before Friday.

Jeffries: Democrats ‘could live with’ this CR

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that ultimately House Democrats “could live with” the Republican CR they voted to pass yesterday.

“It’s a bifurcation, but it’s a bifurcation that is certainly something we could live with. Given the fact that … every red line that we articulated was not crossed,” said Jeffries, D-N.Y.

He said that his relationship with new Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is open, honest and communicative and that the approach will continue to be: “Let’s agree to disagree without being disagreeable.”

Jeffries also reiterated the urgency to provide aid to Israel, as well as to the Ukrainian people. The aid issue is expected to come up after Thanksgiving.

The Senate has hit a snag

Julie Tsirkin

The Senate still hasn’t officially announced that it’s voting on the CR soon. The vote may be delayed because, according to two sources familiar with the matter, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., has a hold on the bill.

Wicker, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, has placed a hold because he wants Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to commit to a date to vote on the National Defense Authorization Act. The Senate was already planning to hold a procedural vote on the NDAA later tonight, but Wicker wants an agreement on a date for final passage.

This could be resolved quickly, or it could take more time, but the hope remains that senators will vote tonight on final passage of the CR.

The Senate is expected to vote in the next hour

Julie Tsirkin

The Senate is expected to begin voting in the next hour, two sources familiar with the matter said. It will vote first on an amendment offered by Rand Paul, R-Ky., that is expected to fail and then on the CR itself.

We could see the first vote, on Paul’s amendment, begin at 5:30 to 6 p.m. ET.

We still don’t have timing for this vote

Sarah Mimms

We’re waiting for Senate leadership, most likely Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to announce the schedule. All we know right now is that senators plan to hold the vote today — and that they really want to leave Washington for the Thanksgiving break.

The House has already gone home after another spending-related failure

A few hours ago, the House announced that it was canceling votes for the rest of the week and members headed out early for Thanksgiving recess. 

Votes were canceled after Republicans failed to pass the rule to move forward with the Commerce, Justice and Science funding bill, one of 12 bills to fully fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year. Rule votes set the terms for debating and passing legislation and usually pass with just members of the majority party; historically they rarely fail, but there have been several instances of this happening this year.

The House is now out of town until Nov. 28.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told NBC News that he’s “not frustrated” by the fact that he’s had to pull multiple spending bills from the floor because he couldn’t get GOP consensus on them.

“This is part of the process and we’re working towards consensus and I’ve been on the job for less than three weeks,” he said.

The Senate will take up a Rand Paul amendment first

All 100 senators need to agree in order to pass the CR today and overcome some procedural hurdles.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was the only public holdout, but agreed to move forward in exchange for getting a vote on an alternative short-term funding bill that includes spending cuts. It is not expected to pass.

Then, the full Senate will vote on the CR. It’s expected to pass easily and then senators will likely head home for the Thanksgiving holiday.

What’s in the bill?

The so-called laddered continuing resolution, or CR, that passed the House yesterday would fund the government at current spending levels, but it splits that funding into two parts.

The first part funds the departments dealing with agriculture, transportation, housing and urban development, military construction, energy, water and Veterans Affairs through Jan. 19.

The remaining agency appropriations will be funded through Feb. 2. That includes departments dealing with commerce, justice, science, defense, financial services, homeland security, the interior, the environment, labor, education, health and human services, the legislative branch, state and foreign operations.

The CR is “clean,” with no spending cuts or contentious policy provisions that would alienate Democrats. It also does not include a supplemental package covering things like aid for Israel and Ukraine, humanitarian assistance or border security, leaving those issues for later in the year.

Catch up on Tuesday’s action: House passes a stopgap bill to avert a government shutdown

House lawmakers on Tuesday passed Speaker Mike Johnson’s stopgap funding bill to avert a government shutdown, most likely punting the GOP’s spending fight until after the holidays.

The vote was 336-95, with 209 Democrats and 127 Republicans voting to support it. Ninety-three Republicans voted against it, more than voted against the last government funding bill in September; two Democrats opposed it: Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts and Mike Quigley of Illinois.

Because of the way leadership structured the vote, it needed support from two-thirds of the full House to pass.

“We just had to get the job done,” Johnson, R-La., said after the vote.

Read the full story here.

How Democrats saved House Speaker Mike Johnson’s spending bill

Senate to vote on the CR today, Schumer’s office confirms

The Senate is taking some procedural moves to set up final passage of the CR today along with an amendment from Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., per a spokesperson for Leader Schumer. We expect the Senate to pass the CR later this evening.