The partial government shutdown was scheduled to occur on October 1, but Congress has now approved the stopgap measure to avoid such a scenario.
The “Nays” were all Republicans, including Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX); Marsha Blackburn (R-TN); Mike Lee (R-UT); Rand Paul (R-KY); Ben Sasse (R-NE); and Tim Scott (R-SC).
Texas Sen. John Cornyn voted for the resolution.
The legislation’s funding is set at fiscal year 2019 levels.
Also extended — which were scheduled to halt at the end of this fiscal year — is the often-maligned Export-Import Bank of the United States, the troubled National Flood Insurance Program, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, the Calfed Bay-Delta Authorization Act, the Department of Education’s National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity, and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
Additionally, included in H.R. 4378 is an extension of the Trump administration’s aid program to farmers hurt by the administration’s tariffs on China.
Three Democratic presidential candidates were not present for the vote: Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
Making this issue infinitely more complicated is the decision by House Democrats to begin an impeachment inquiry of the president. With that now revving up, it remains to be seen how future votes on government funding, border security, and the USMCA trade agreement could be impacted.
The resolution now moves to President Trump’s desk for an expected signature.
The United States is currently nearing $23 trillion in national debt with federal deficits exceeding $1 trillion this year alone.
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Brad Johnson
Brad Johnson is a senior reporter for The Texan and an Ohio native who graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 2017. He is an avid sports fan who most enjoys watching his favorite teams continue their title drought throughout his cognizant lifetime. In his free time, you may find Brad quoting Monty Python productions and trying to calculate the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow.
