Senate advances spending bills despite Trump shutdown threat
By JENNIFER SCHOLTES and KAITLYN BURTON 08/01/2018 01:46 PM EDT
Senators passed a four-bill spending package Wednesday, forging ahead in the federal funding process even as the president threatens to wreck it all with a veto-spurred government shutdown tied to border security.
In a 92-6 vote, the Republican-led Senate signed off on a bundle that includes one quarter of the 12 annual spending bills covering a host of federal agencies. Passed was fiscal 2019 funding for the departments of Agriculture, Transportation, Interior, Treasury and HUD, as well as the EPA and IRS.
After canceling all but one week of August recess, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced this week that leaders on both sides of the aisle aim to pass two more of the spending bills — Defense, and Labor-HHS-Education — by month’s end.
“We hope to be able to conference those bills with the House and send the president a series of conference reports covering those nine of 12 appropriation bills early after we get back from the Labor Day weekend break,” McConnell said Tuesday.
The majority leader has not said, however, what will come of the remaining three measures, which fund the departments of State, Homeland Security, Justice and Commerce, as well as foreign operations and science programs.
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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/01/senate-spending-bills-despite-trump-shutdown-threat-717722
