Senate strikes government funding deal that would avert September shutdown

WASHINGTON — Senate leaders are pushing lawmakers to advance a bipartisan government funding deal this week so that they can vote to avert a shutdown when the chamber returns next month from a five-week recess.Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) said the continuing resolution (CR) would fund most of the government at current levels until Dec.11, while increasing spending on certain programs such as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children.It also would scrap a proposed federal rule, first reported by The Post in May, that gave the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) greater authority over grant funding.“I advocated for significant changes to the proposed rule in a July 6 letter to the agency, citing its potential to politicize grants and harm small, rural communities, families, and biomedical research,” Collins said.Sen.

Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the Appropriations panel, also celebrated that the bill “blocks implementation of OMB’s corrupt new grants rule for the duration of the CR.”A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) also posted on X: “Bipartisan CR released eight-plus weeks before funding deadline.Passing it now will avert costly government shutdown in the fall.

The first procedural vote on this package will happen [Monday] at 5:30pm.”It’s unclear if the bill will attain the 60 votes necessary to avoid the legislative filibuster, and not all Republican appropriators are on board.“It’s been reported that Senator [Chuck] Schumer [D-NY], in return for keeping government open, wants Senator Thune to kill the budget resolution, and to take away President Trump’s authority to review government grants,” Sen.John Kennedy (R-La.) told NBC’s “Meet The Press” Sunday morning.

“I think to agree to that would be top of the heap, king of the hill, A-number-one stupid.“Will I vote for it? The short answer is no.The long a...