Government Shutdown Looms Again As Senate GOP Blocks Funding Bill

A government shutdown is possible at midnight Friday if senators can’t pass a package of spending bills. Republican senators are demanding votes on unrelated amendments related to immigration in exchange for allowing the package to be voted on. 

Many Democrats have come forward expressing their frustration with Republicans and their refusal to compromise. 

“We need to do what we were elected to do, fund the government, not shut it down,” Jon Tester (D-Montana) said.

“I swear to god it is sinful what is going on, and the games that are being played right now with the American people and all the people that are depending on the services of the federal government. And we can’t even get our act together,” said Joe Minchin (D-West Virginia).

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer stated that he thinks Republicans take the blame for the potential government shutdown.

The House passed the package of bills with mostly Democratic votes and Republicans divided evenly between support and opposition.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell sided with Democrats, describing the threat of a shutdown as “harmful to the country” and “entirely avoidable.” 

The package would fund the Departments of Agriculture, Energy, Transportation, the FDA and several more government agencies while a more complicated set of funding bills have yet to be taken up.