After three days of shutdown, the government will reopen, albeit only through Feb. 8, at which point Congress will need to pass a third federal spending bill.
Included in the second temporary bill is a reauthorization of funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program and delays on several health care taxes. Senate Democrats gathered enough votes to shut down the government Friday evening with the intent to secure protections for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients before moving forward.
Washington Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray voted in favor of the bill alongside 79 other Senators, although neighboring Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley voted against.
In exchange for approval of the temporary spending bill, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promised to consider legislation addressing security for Dreamers.
“I support this short-term agreement not because I blindly trust Republican leaders to deliver on their commitments, but because I believe this path offers us the best chance to reach a comprehensive deal to protect families and communities in this Republican Congress,” Murray said in a statement. “Republican leaders clearly understand that a majority of Democrats and Republicans support bipartisan solutions to the challenges in front of us, and they now realize that they can’t keep the government shut down in an attempt to stop that work from being done.”
Murray added that Congress needs to work together to find a solution for Dreamers.
“Republican leaders have made a commitment on this, and I am going to be holding their feet to the fire,” she said.
Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, intended to vote in favor of the bill — as she did with the first funding extension — but was detained from voting. Herrera Beutler spokesperson Angeline Riesterer said the representative was “inadvertently caught up in an enhanced vehicle security sweep by Capitol Police as she traveled to vote.” Herrera Beutler instead spoke after the vote on the House floor in support of the bill.
“For the sake of the 7,000 vulnerable kids in Southwest Washington who rely on the Children’s Health Insurance Program and all the members of our military whose pay was being withheld, I’m pleased Senate Democrat leaders finally agreed to cease their hostage-taking and end this shutdown,” Herrera Beutler said in a statement. “Spending agreements require 60 votes in the Senate, and there are currently only 51 Republican Senators, so it was vital that Senate Democrats made the decision to cooperate in order to end a shutdown. While I wish they would have passed this almost exact-same, six-year CHIP extension the House approved last week and avoided this manufactured crisis, it’s now my hope that Congress and the White House can get back to negotiating in good faith on long-term solutions.”
