Senate rejects competing bills to fund government, increasing risk of shutdown on Oct. 1
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate rejected competing measures on Friday to fund federal agencies for a few weeks when the new budget year begins on Oct. 1, increasing prospects for a partial government shutdown on that date.
Leaders of the two parties sought to blame the other side for the standoff. Democrats accused Republicans of not negotiating with them to address some of their priorities on health care as part of the funding measure, even though they knew some Democratic votes would be needed to get a bill to the president's desk.
Republicans said Democrats were making demands that would dramatically increase spending and were not germane to the core issue of keeping agencies fully running for a short period of time while negotiations continued on a full-year spending measure.
“The Republican bill is a clean, nonpartisan, short-term continuing resolution to fund the government to give us time to do the full appropriations process. And the Democrat bill is the exact opposite," Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said shortly before the votes. “It’s what you might call, not a clean CR, a dirty CR – laden down with partisan policies and appeals to Democrats’ leftist base.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/house-voting-funding-patch-parties-040711176.html