The U.S. Senate just overwhelmingly passed yet another bill to keep the federal government open for business for another few weeks. Leaders of the Democratic majority say they’re starting to get tired of it.
By a vote of 87-13, Senators passed their version of the continuing resolution the House passed on Tuesday. The bill will keep the lights on through April 8, and cuts spending by $6 billion.
It also keeps the houses of congress from fighting over a long-term spending bill, which the House has stuffed with pet conservative causes like defunding Planned Parenthood.
But this short-term spending dance is wearing thin, Senate Democratic leaders say, and they want to bring it to an end.
“Look, patience is wearing thin on both sides with these stopgaps,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told reporters after the vote. “All signs point to this being the last one.”
Schumer said “three weeks should be enough” for Senate leaders and their Republican counterparts in the House to work out a long-term spending bill both sides can live with (albeit uncomfortably.)
Pointing to House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) reliance on Democrats to pass the last CR over the no votes of 54 Republicans, Schumer and other Democratic Senate leaders said it looks to them like there’s room for both sides to come together on a long term plan.
“The Speaker’s going to have to make a choice,” Schumer said. “He can cater to the tea party elements and as [Rep.] Mike Pence [R-IN] has suggested, ‘pick a fight.’ … Or he can abandon the tea party in these negotiations and forge a consensus among more moderate Republicans and a group of Democrats.”
Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said negotiations over a long-term spending bill are underway, and staff from his office, Bohener’s office and the White House met as recently as yesterday to discuss a way out of the short-term spending solution to keeping the government from shutting down.
