The House of Representatives pass a short-term spending bill that will keep the government open until February 16. But Senate Democrats stayed true to their word in opposing the bill. The fate of the continuing resolution, and the continuing operations of the federal government hang in the balance.
Democrats are demanding that any budget resolution contain, among other things, a solution to the DACA problem. Republicans have expressed a willingness to deal with the issue but are using a March 5 date as a deadline for the issue. “The president has given us until March. Last time I looked, this was January. My colleagues, where is the urgency here?” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said last night on the Senate floor.
As of last night, Democrats had enough votes to hold the legislation. In addition to about thirty-nine Democratic votes, there were also two or three Republican Senators who are also ready to vote the measure down.
The Senate is adjourned until 11am this morning, at which point it will reconvene and both sides will attempt to hammer out an agreement. So far, Democrats are sticking to their guns. Privately, Democrats are concerned that Republicans are pushing immigration demands beyond just border security, and into areas like asylum policy and border force expansion.
“That’s a big problem,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) said. “Give the president border security, which he wants, but let’s not take on every single immigration issue. It’s not fair to them. We don’t have the time to do it right.”