Senate leaders have been locked in partisan combat for days over whether a stopgap spending measure to keep the government running past Friday should include disaster aid at all. Senate Republicans included $500 million for flood victims in Louisiana and other water-drenched states, where thousands of homes have been destroyed or damaged. Democrats, however, have insisted that any effort to help Louisiana should be coupled with aid to Flint, MI, where an estimated 9,000 children have been poisoned by lead from a contaminated water system for more than a year.
The Senate Republican proposed stopgap measure, which was presented last week and drafted last week without Democratic cooperation, would extend current funding levels to December 9, while providing $1.1 billion to combat the Zika virus. It also would offer a full year of funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction projects.
The measure failed, as expected, to advance the measure Tuesday, when supporters mustered only 45 votes for it on a procedural test or a cloture vote, which requires 60 votes to proceed.
Today, the Senate has invoked cloture on a 10-week continuing resolution. The vote is the first in a series on the stopgap spending package, which is needed to avoid a government shutdown when FY 2016 funding expires at midnight on Friday. Senate Democrats objections were resolved Wednesday following the failed vote on Wednesday after congressional leaders reached a deal to provide aid for Flint, MI, through separate authorizing legislation.
The tally was 60-13 with voting continuing to proceed on the motion, and ending debate.