Andrew Harnik/AP Images
President Donald Trump signed a funding bill to end a
federal government shutdown Monday night.
The House and Senate both passed the bill earlier
Monday, ending the three-day government shutdown.
The deal was reached after Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell committed to bring to the Senate floor a bill to
codify the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
program.
President Donald Trump signed a short-term funding bill Congress
passed on Monday, officially ending the
three-day federal government shutdown.
The key vote came in the Senate, where most members supported a
key procedural vote to let the funding bill proceed without a
filibuster. The cloture vote easily cleared the 60-vote threshold
with a final vote of 81 to 18. Two Republicans, Sens. Rand Paul
and Mike Lee, voted against the measure, as did 16 Democrats.
The deal will keep the government funded until February 8, eight
days earlier than the date in the House-passed funding bill that
the Senate rejected on Friday.
The final bill passed in the Senate a few hours later with the
same vote as the cloture measure. The delay between the cloture
vote and the final vote was due to members working out language
that will allow federal workers to receive back-pay for the days
the government was closed, per reports.
The House then agreed to the deal, passing the measure shortly
after the Senate by a vote of 266 to 150. 45 Democrats voted for
the funding bill, while six Republicans crossed party lines to
vote no.
Trump weighed in on the deal following the cloture vote with a
statement partially committing to an immigration deal.
"I am pleased that Democrats in Congress have come to their
senses and are now willing to fund our great military, border
patrol, first responders, and insurance for vulnerable children,"
Trump said. "As I have always said, once the Government is
funded, my Administration will work toward solving the problem of
very unfair illegal immigration. We will make a long-term deal on
immigration if, and only if, it is good for our country."
Given Trump's wild change of hearts during the immigration
discussion, it is unclear what exactly a deal that is "good for
our country" would look like.
The impasse was broken after Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell agreed to hold an open debate process on a bill to
codify the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration
program. Securing a vote on DACA was
a key priority for Democrats, but the deal with McConnell
appears to have fallen short of the party's original request.
Despite McConnell's commitment, there is nothing binding the
House to the deal. A 2013 immigration bill received bipartisan
support in the Senate but never made it to the floor of the
House.
McConnell previously promised Republican Sen. Jeff Flake there
would be a DACA vote by the end of January, which does not look
likely.
Schumer said that if McConnell did not hold a good-faith vote on
the DACA issue by February 8, the Republican leader "will have
breached the trust" of Senate Democrats.
"The Republican majority now has 17 days to keep the Dreamers
from being deported," Schumer said, referring to DACA recipients.
The program will expire on March 5, potentially
leaving nearly 700,000 unauthorized immigrants who came to
the US as minors at risk of deportation.
The Senate funding bill will also extend funding for the
Children's Health Insurance Program for six years. CHIP funding
technically expired in September.
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