US Senate majority leader considering piecemeal government reopening: Report

ISTANBUL

The US Senate majority leader said Wednesday he is considering bringing full-year appropriations bills for certain areas in the face of the ongoing government shutdown, which is now over a week old.

Republican John Thune told Axios that as talks to reopen government through a short-term spending stopgap bill are frozen, he is contemplating bringing a single appropriation bill, such as one to fund the Pentagon and pay the military, to the floor for a vote.

"We're prepared to do that," Thune told Axios when asked at what point he would consider bringing committee-passed appropriations bills to the floor. "That takes consent. We got to find out if the Dems (Democrats) are going to let us do anything while the government is shut down. But yeah, I'm ready to call up the defense approps bill.”

“The top priority of everyone is getting the government reopened," Republican Susan Collins, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told the outlet. "If we are stymied, I think we should be proceeding with appropriations laws."

She called for the Senate to designate members for a formal conference for a trio of bills that passed the Senate earlier this year.

From the other end of the political spectrum, Democrat Patty Murray, the committee’s ranking member, said of Thune potentially bringing the defense bill to the floor: "There's nothing holding him back from doing that.”

"That does not change where we are right now in the CR," she added, referring to a continuing resolution, which would keep the government running until a proper budget is passed. The Democrats have refused to vote for one if it fails to extend health care, warning that insurance bills could double for millions of Americans. Democratic votes are needed to pass the continuing resolution.

"I prefer that the Republican leader talks to the Democratic leader, and they come up with a decision on how we're going to move forward on all of this," Murray said.

- US government shutdown

The US Senate on Wednesday failed to advance funding bills to end a government shutdown for the sixth time.

By a vote of 54-45, the Senate did not invoke cloture on the motion to move forward on the House-passed Republican measure.

US Senate Minority Leader Democrat Chuck Schumer on Wednesday slammed what he called Republican stubbornness as the federal government shutdown entered its eighth day.

"It's now been a full week, a whole week, of Donald Trump's government shutdown, and the country is feeling the sting of Republican intransigence," Schumer said on the Senate floor.

​​​​​​​More than 700,000 federal employees have been furloughed, and services are being disrupted, said Schumer.