Senate works to push sweeping omnibus bill ahead of shutdown
Fox
News senior congressional correspondent Chad Pergram provides an update
on the status of a proposed $1.7 trillion spending package on 'The
Ingraham Angle.'
The Senate
on Thursday approved a $1.7 trillion spending bill with help from more
than a dozen Republican lawmakers after a fight over immigration policy
nearly derailed the legislation.
In an 68-29
vote, the Senate passed a bill that provides $858 billion for defense,
$787 billion for non-defense domestic programs and nearly $45 billion
for military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. The more than 4,000-page
bill funds the government for the rest of the fiscal year, and includes
more than 7,200 earmarks totaling more than $15 billion.
Senate passage sends the bill to the House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to hold a vote as early as Thursday evening to allow lawmakers to depart for the Christmas holiday.
"The
bill is so important to get done because it will be good for families,
for veterans, our national security, even for the health of our
democratic institutions," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
FOUR RETIRING SENATORS SCORE MORE THAN $1.7B IN EARMARKS IN GIANT SPENDING BILL
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., pushed through a
$1.7 trillion spending bill Thursday, just one day before a partial
government shutdown. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Although only a majority vote was needed, a handful of Republicans
voted with every single Senate Democrat to pass the bill. Republican
support was slightly lower than the 21 GOP votes the measure garnered
earlier this week to overcome the Senate's 60-vote filibuster threshold.
While both parties negotiated the spending bill in the Senate, it generated significant opposition from Republicans.
Several
Senate Republicans even mounted a last-minute push to block the measure
in the lead-up to the final vote. Arguing that a GOP-controlled House
could exact larger concessions from President Biden come January, the
Republicans sought to amend the bill in ways Democrats said would make
it impossible to pass in the House.
GOP SCORES WIN IN $1.7T BUDGET DEAL BY CUTTING IRS FUNDING — BUT THE AGENCY STILL CASHES IN
"Senate
Republicans should instead support a short-term spending bill, allowing
the new Congress — with the incoming Republican House — to start the
spending process over again in January," said Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.
Late Wednesday, the bill was almost derailed by a Republican push to add immigration language.
In exchange for agreeing to speed up the vote process, Lee wanted a
vote to maintain a Trump-era immigration policy in place that has
prevented millions of immigrants from entering the U.S. That so-called
Title 42 policy, which was invoked during the height of the COVID-19
pandemic, allows immigration to be curtailed for public health reasons.
The spending bill now heads to the House of Representatives, where
Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to hold a vote before lawmakers depart
for the Christmas holiday. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)
Lee and GOP senators hoped a simple-majority vote on the amendment keeping Title 42 in place would win the support of enough red state Democrats to pass.
Lee's
demand froze the Senate for several hours, and he accused Democrats of
dodging the issue because the measure might easily pass. While popular
with some moderate Democrats, the Title 42 policy is widely opposed by
progressives in the House and would have likely tanked the bill.
By
Thursday morning, Schumer agreed to give Lee his vote but also set up a
vote on an amendment from Arizona independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema that
would have kept Title 42 in place and increased funding for immigration
enforcement and processing.
The Senate rejected Sinema's amendment,
which required 60 votes for passage. But Sinema's language allowed
moderate Democrats facing tough re-election challenges in 2024, like
Sinema and Montana Sen. Jon Tester, to vote for keeping Title 42 in
place while opposing Lee's amendment, which also failed due to lack of
Democratic support.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and other GOP senators hoped a simple
majority vote on an amendment keeping Title 42 in place would garner the
support of sufficient red state Democrats to pass. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
"This
was a runaround designed by Schumer to protect the budget without
putting vulnerable senators out on a limb," said a Senate Democratic
aide. "Everyone won, except for Mike Lee."
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The Senate also brushed off an argument from Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.,
that the giant spending bill ignores Senate rules aimed at making sure
new spending is paid for with spending cuts. But when forced by Paul to
confront that issue, the Senate voted 65-31 in favor of waiving Senate
budget rules.
