Republicans push to pay troops, reopen government as Democrats balk

Senate Democrats wanted an equal say in crafting spending bills before the shutdown and are about to get a chance to do so, but they’re unlikely to support Republicans’ latest effort to jump-start the government funding process.

The Senate on Thursday is set to move through a procedural hurdle on the annual defense spending bill, which, among other things, would ensure that military service members would get their paychecks.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., teed up the bill earlier this week as the shutdown raged on to pressure Senate Democrats to make good on their desire to fund the government in a bipartisan manner, and in the hopes of getting the appropriations process moving again. 

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“We can actually get the appropriations process going forward,” Thune said. “So that’s in the works.”

And in the Senate, given the 60-vote filibuster threshold, spending bills are prime examples of the many pieces of legislation that have to be bipartisan to pass. But Senate Democrats seemed unwilling to go all in on supporting the defense bill, and like the Republicans’ plan to reopen the government, appear ready to block Thune’s effort.

They want to know exactly what Republicans plan to put on the floor later on, despite the vote on Thursday afternoon being designed to give lawmakers the chance to move forward with at least one of several spending bills that must be passed to fund the government.

“We have to see what they’re going to put on the floor,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said. “They haven’t told us yet.”

Republicans are also eyeing at least three other spending bills to attach to the defense appropriations bill, including legislation that would fund the Labor Department, Health and Human Services, Commerce Department, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development.

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Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and appears ready for the reality that Democrats would block the defense bill and broader spending package.

“You have to start with the defense, and then you can add the other ones to it, but once again, it takes agreement by our Dem colleagues that want to move that forward,” he said. “I’m not sure that we’ve got the votes to do that yet.”

There is a trust deficit between Senate Democrats and Republicans from earlier this year when the GOP passed President Donald Trump’s request to claw back billions in funding for foreign aid and NPR and PBS, in addition to continued actions by Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought to withhold or cancel funding for Democratic priorities.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., told Fox News Digital after Senate Democrats met behind closed doors on Wednesday that there had been no indication from Republicans there would be “bipartisan cooperation or any willingness to put any guardrails around what they plan to do.”

“I think the stage we’re at is that we’ve been shown nothing,” he said. “So there’s no reason to vote for it yet.”

“I think what was needed is a larger agreement about how the appropriations process is moving forward, so it’s clear that our priorities are respected,” he continued.

However, pairing the defense bill could grease the wheels for some in the Democratic caucus.

“No, not unless it’s paired with [the Labor and HHS bill],” Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said.

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Thune’s move to reignite the appropriations process, an exercise that played out in the Senate in early August when lawmakers advanced a trio of funding bills ahead of the shutdown deadline, is part of Republicans’ broader desire to fund the government the old-fashioned way, rather than through a colossal omnibus spending package.

It’s an exercise, however, that hasn’t been fully completed since the 1990s.

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., noted to Fox News Digital that a major part of selecting a new leader for the Senate GOP was returning to what’s known as regular order, or passing spending to fund the government.

He argued that when Schumer ran the Senate as majority leader, the upper chamber was often resigned to passing “these omnibus bills that were developed in the, you know, middle of the night with four people.”

“We’re not interested in that. So we want to get bills on the floor, and they’ve got to move in a bipartisan way, right? So I think this is something that I would hope Democrats would support, too,” he said. “But if their mentality is at this point, you know, just oppose everything Republicans want to do, it’s pathological, and I don’t have any advice for them except seek help.”

Republicans are still trying to reopen the government and plan to put the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) on the floor again Thursday for a 10th time. And just like many times before, it is expected to fail.

When asked if he believed that the shutdown could transform into lawmakers passing spending bills one-by-one to reopen the government, Thune said, “I certainly hope not.”