Schumer blocks one-week stopgap funding bill
Source: The Hill
Schumer blocks one-week stopgap funding bill
By Jordain Carney - 04/27/17 08:01 PM EDT
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Thursday objected to a deal on passing a one-week stopgap government funding bill, citing concerns about ongoing negotiations over a larger spending agreement. Schumer said there were still unresolved "poison pill riders" being worked out on a longer spending deal that would fund the government through Sept. 30. "Our position has been clear and it's nothing new. No poison pill riders. The sooner we can resolve this issue, the quicker we can have an agreement on appropriations for 2017, so I object," he said from the Senate floor. He added that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been "cooperative and extremely helpful" but Democrats want to work on the remaining hurdles to a long-term deal before they can agree to pass the short-term continuing resolution (CR).
McConnell had asked for unanimous consent – which requires the agreement of every senator – to allow the Senate to automatically approve the one-week CR once it passes the House on Friday. "Colleagues, it's my understanding that the four corners who are working on the omnibus appropriation are very, very close to agreement. We still need a few days to process the larger bill," McConnell said from the Senate floor ahead of his request.
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Schumer has pointed to concerns about environmental regulations, Dodd-Frank protections and rolling back healthcare as outstanding issues on the long-term talks. Lawmakers have until Friday night to pass the stopgap bill in order to avoid a shutdown. The Senate is poised to return Friday at 11 a.m.
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Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/331009-schumer-blocks-one-week-stopgap-funding-bill
= new reply since forum marked as read
but when the request is for legislation that actually HELPS people, the GOP always had someone "object" to the unanimous consent - See "Pigford II", which was supposed to authorize payments to black farmers missed in "Pigford I" (which was already approved by USDA and the Courts) where Coburn refused to allow the legislation final passage via unanimous consent as he threw a monkey wrench into the bill. That payments delay eventually lasted almost 6 months due to his bullshit until he was finally "satisfied" and it was finally passed. 
I.e., Democrats need to be ready to object to these types of vote requests when the passage would hurt people.
