Senate passes bill to fund government in bid to avert shutdown ahead of midterm elections

By Morgan Rimmer, CNN

(CNN) — The Senate passed a bill on Saturday that would extend government funding to December 11 in a bid to avert a shutdown ahead of the upcoming midterm elections.

The chamber moved to tackle the funding deadline over a month in advance of the September 30 deadline. It’s not yet clear though if lawmakers will manage to stave off a funding fight next month.

The bill passed by the Senate would next have to be taken up by the House, where its fate is uncertain as that chamber has already passed an alternative measure.

The Senate measure differs from a funding extension passed by the House in several ways, including a lack of funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, which have already been funded through the end of President Donald Trump’s term, and a temporary block on a proposed administration rule that critics warn would further politicize federal grants.

Senate leaves for August recess

The Senate vote to pass the funding bill came in the early hours of Saturday morning, as senators attempted to wrap up a number of legislative items before departing Washington to return to their home states for the August recess.

Ultimately, in addition to adopting the measure to extend government funding into December, the Senate also confirmed acting attorney general Todd Blanche as the permanent head of the Department of Justice, and, separately, rejected a voter ID measure.

However, Senate Republicans chose to delay for now a vote on their budget resolution, which was meant to be a party-line package containing defense funding and parts of a controversial elections bill, after President Donald Trump called into a late meeting at the Capitol with several senators on Friday night to discuss their options, those senators said.

Trump had demanded that the Senate pass the budget resolution before leaving town for their recess, and GOP Sen. Mike Lee had said he would object to any effort to speed up consideration and leave if the budget resolution did not pass. Both Trump and Lee have been pushing for the president’s elections package, known as the “SAVE America Act,” for months.

However, Sen. Ron Johnson, who chairs the Senate budget committee, told reporters that during a meeting in Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s office on Friday night, the president called in and there was unanimous agreement that the GOP senators will go back to the drawing board for a “better” budget resolution, including more defense funding, that they can pursue when they return in September, rather than face a failed vote to advance a budget resolution this week.

Republican leadership had also hoped to at least take a preliminary procedural vote on a bill focused on regulating name, image, and likeness deals in college sports, but senators were unable to reach a deal on the package.

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