The U.S. Senate voted against proposed legislation late Monday night that would have prevented a government shutdown by activating a short-term resolution to fund the government.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) introduced the “Eliminate Shutdowns Act” earlier this month. The bill called for Congress to implement a 14-day continuing resolution to fund the government automatically should Congress not agree on a funding deal by a deadline. The Senate voted against the legislation by a vote of 37-61. It needed 60 votes to pass.
In September, Johnson wrote an opinion article in the Wall Street Journal to explain why the Senate should support his proposed legislation.
“The U.S. has experienced three government shutdowns since I entered the Senate in 2011,” wrote Johnson. “During that time Congress has passed 55 continuing resolutions and increased or suspended the debt ceiling 12 times. The national debt has grown during those 14 years from $14 trillion to $37 trillion.”
He explained why he introduced this bill and how it differed from previous legislation to eliminate government shutdowns due to congressional squabbling over funding.
“In 2019, I supported a bill that would have done away with government shutdowns forever,” Johnson said. “It passed the committee I chaired 12-2, but never passed either chamber of Congress.”
“Some argued the 2019 bill would lead to higher spending and prohibit consideration of other measures until appropriations bills were passed,” said Johnson. “Those were legitimate concerns. My new bill simply provides for automatic two-week rolling continuing resolutions for any department for which an appropriation bill or longer-term continuing resolution hasn’t been passed. This would keep spending flat by prorating the previous year’s spending level.”
“This simple bill could be a game changer,” he added. “With government funding and functioning assured, Congress would no longer have to spend weeks and months arguing over how to keep government departments open after failing to pass appropriation bills.”
“Appropriations for individual departments would no longer be held hostage until a deal is done for all,” Johnson said.
However, similar to previous legislation introduced by the Wisconsin senator, this too failed to pass. In addition to Senate Democrats, 14 Republicans voted against Johnson’s proposal. Among the Republicans who voted no were: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), and Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), among others.
Every Democrat voted against the bill, with many accusing it of being deceptive and giving President Donald Trump more authority.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) said the bill gave Congress’s “power of the purse to Donald Trump and Russ Vought.”
“This bill has a nice-sounding name, but that’s about the only good thing you can say about it,” said Murray. “What it really does is hand over Congress’s power of the purse to Donald Trump and Russ Vought.”
“If this bill were to pass, Trump could quite literally refuse to sign any funding bill, even a bipartisan bill, unless it met all of his demands, and Congress would then have to override his veto with a two-thirds vote in both chambers if we ever wanted to get off the forever CR that this bill would put in place,” Murray added. “No way.”
The government will officially shut down if an agreement is not reached by the Sept. 30 deadline.
