Senate passes funding bill without SAVE Act, avoiding potential shutdown

The Senate passed a short-term spending bill on Wednesday, avoiding a partial government shutdown at the end of the month and allowing lawmakers up for re-election to head home early to campaign. 

By a vote of 78 to 18, senators approved a spending bill that will keep funding steady until Dec. 20, known as a continuing resolution (CR). 

It passed in the House hours before being taken to the floor in the upper chamber, with representatives approving the spending bill 341 to 82. 

132 Republican House members voted in favor of it. The bill saw 82 votes against it, all of which were cast by Republicans.

Lawmakers avoided a partial shutdown with only days to spare, despite a GOP demand that the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act be included. Several Republicans in Congress had insisted the SAVE Act be attached to the spending bill, including some in the Senate. 

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The SAVE Act would require proof of citizenship in order to register to vote. 

A short-term bill that included that measure failed in the House of Representatives when Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., brought it for a vote last week, effectively killing hopes for a CR with the SAVE Act attached.

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The House voted down the stopgap bill 202 to 220, with several Republicans voting against it and two voting “present.” Three vulnerable Democrats voted in favor of it. 

A CR with the SAVE Act had also been backed by former President Donald Trump, who urged Republicans not to accept a spending deal that did not include it. But while Trump encouraged it, Republicans both publicly and privately worried that their party would be blamed for a shutdown. 

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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., even laid the groundwork for blaming the GOP for a potential shutdown in recent floor remarks, labeling the possibility as a “Trump shutdown.”

“Democrats and Americans don’t want a Trump shutdown,” he claimed. 

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Republicans decided not to prolong the fight over the CR and potentially risk a government shutdown, which is attributed by some in part to incoming severe weather that would make it difficult for senators to get back to their home states and looming competitive elections that they want to get on the campaign trail for. 

While the CR will keep the government in full operation past the initial appropriations deadline, it sets up another potential standoff before Christmas and a GOP-dreaded omnibus measure that squeezes several necessary legislative items into one massive bill. 

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