Senate Passes Stopgap Spending Bill, Sends to Trump to Sign

The Senate passed a stopgap spending bill Thursday, sending the funding measure to President Donald Trump to sign hours before government spending was set to run out.

The Senate passed the continuing resolution (CR) Thursday, with 74 votes in favor of the measure and 20 against the bill.

Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Mike Braun (R-IN), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Mike Enzi (R-WY), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Mike Lee (R-UT), Rand Paul (R-KY), David Perdue (R-GA), Jim Risch (R-ID), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Ben Sasse (R-NE), Rick Scott (R-FL), Tim Scott (R-SC), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Pat Toomey (R-PA) voted against the funding measure.

The funding measure would fund the government through December 2020, giving congressional lawmakers weeks to figure out how to agree to a longer-term spending agreement.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-AL) said Thursday he remains optimistic about potential spending deals.

“Our numbers have gotten closer and closer. But sometimes we are ready to close the curtain and make things work and the demands go up on the other side,” he said. “They seem to change the agenda from time to time.”

The Alabama Republican also said that the government will have to resolve the issue of how much money to give to Trump to continue funding the wall along the southern border.

Shelby said, “Border wall is going to have to be resolved before we get some type of legislation. Now, border wall is not directly connected, but indirectly, to the allocations.”

The Senate also shot down Paul’s Penny Plan amendment, otherwise known as S.2792, to the spending bill, which would help improve America’s infrastructure. The Penny Plan infrastructure plan would make minute cuts across the federal budget, which would pay for between 2,500 and 6,200 miles of new four-lane highways, 2,200 miles of six-lane interstate highways, or resurface 20,000 miles of existing four-lane roads.