Washington - The US Senate approved a
budget deal including a stopgap government funding bill early on
Friday, but it was too late to prevent a federal shutdown that
was already underway in an embarrassing setback for the
Republican-controlled Congress.
The shutdown, which technically started at midnight, was the
second this year under Republican President Donald Trump, who
played little role in attempts by party leaders earlier this
week to head it off and end months of fiscal squabbling.
The US Office of Personnel Management advised millions of
federal employees shortly after midnight to check with their
agencies about whether they should report to work on Friday.
The Senate's approval of the budget and stopgap funding
package, by a vote of 71-28, meant it will go next to the House
of Representatives, where lawmakers were divided along party
lines and passage was uncertain.
House Republican leaders on Thursday had offered assurances
that the package would be approved, but so did Senate leaders
and the critical midnight deadline, when current government
funding authority expired, was still missed.
The reason for that was a nine-hour, on-again, off-again
Senate floor speech by Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul,
who objected to deficit spending in the bill.
The unexpected turn of events dragged the Senate proceedings
into the wee hours and underscored the persistent inability of
Congress and Trump to deal efficiently with Washington's most
basic fiscal obligations of keeping the government open.
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The shutdown could be brief. If the House acts before
daybreak to approve the package from the Senate, there would be
no practical interruption in federal government business.
If it does not, the result would be an actual shutdown, the
second of 2018, after a three-day shutdown in January.
Paul said during his marathon speech, which strained fellow
senators' patience, that the two-year budget deal would "loot
the Treasury."
The bill would raise military and domestic spending by
almost $300 billion over the next two years. With no offsets in
the form of other spending cuts or new tax revenues, that
additional spending would be financed by borrowed money.
MORE RED INK
The budget part of the package was a bipartisan attempt by
Senate leaders to end for many months, at least beyond
November's midterm congressional elections, the fiscal policy
quarrels that increasingly consume Congress.
But the deficit spending in the bill would add more red ink
to Washington's balance sheet and further underscore a shift in
Republican thinking that Paul was trying to draw attention to.
Once known as the party of fiscal conservatism, the
Republicans and Trump approved a sweeping tax overhaul bill in
December that will add an estimated $1.5 trillion to the $20
trillion national debt over 10 years.
"I ran for office because I was very critical of President
Obama's trillion-dollar deficits," Paul said.
"Now we have Republicans hand in hand with Democrats
offering us trillion-dollar deficits. I can't ... in good faith,
just look the other way because my party is now complicit in the
deficits. Really who is to blame? Both parties," he said.
Paul voted for the deficit-financed tax bill in December.
MARKETS UNEASY
The shutdown in Washington came at a sensitive time for
financial markets. Stocks plunged on Thursday in New York on
heavy volume, throwing off course a nearly nine-year bull run.
The S&P 500 slumped 3.8 percent.
Markets barely flinched at the last shutdown in January, but
that was before a dizzying selloff that started on Jan. 30 amid
concerns about inflation and higher interest rates.
Uneasiness in the markets could be partially reduced by
another part of the Senate bill, which would extend the federal
debt ceiling to March 2019, preventing further confrontations
over that volatile issue in Congress for more than a year.
But final passage of the bill was still uncertain, with
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and others in her party
opposing it because Republican House leaders will not guarantee
her that they will allow a debate later on about taking steps to
protect about 700,000 "Dreamer" immigrants from deportation.
The young people were brought illegally to the country as
children years ago, mostly from Mexico.
Trump said last September he would end by March 5 a program
set up by former Democratic President Barack Obama to protect
the Dreamers from deportation, and urged Congress to act before
then. Senate Republicans have pledged to hold a separate
immigration debate this month.
Even without Pelosi, the House could pass the budget bill
because it includes more money for disaster relief,
infrastructure and healthcare, which many Democrats favor.
But some House Republican conservatives, like Paul, have
criticized the bill's deficit spending.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, who backs the bill, predicted the
Republican-controlled House would pass it. "I think we will," he
said in a radio interview. "It's going to need bipartisan
support. We are going to deliver our share of support."