Senate Dems give up on shutdown

Business & Economy

The Big Story

Senate advances bill to prevent shutdown

A group of 10 Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), voted Friday to advance a Republican bill to fund the government through Sept. 30.

The pivotal procedural vote, which passed 62-28, puts the bill on a glidepath to pass the Senate sometime Friday night, despite fierce opposition from many Democrats.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) announced an agreement shortly before 4:30 p.m. Friday to vote to immediately advance the House-passed funding bill and consider four amendments to the legislation, all of which were expected to fail.

How we got here:

Schumer opened the door for some Democratic colleagues to vote to advance the bill by announcing Thursday that he would do so to avoid a government shutdown.
He warned a shutdown would give Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk — Trump’s chief budget cutter — tremendous leverage to keep federal employees out of work and to keep federal agencies shuttered for weeks, or even months.

Schumer’s decision to vote to advance the bill, which he acknowledged Thursday is a “very bad” bill, has sparked an angry backlash from Democratic progressives and House leaders.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) warned that Schumer would be making a “tremendous mistake.”

After learning of Schumer’s decision, Ocasio-Cortez told reporters that “there is a deep sense of outrage and betrayal.”

Read the full report at TheHill.com.

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Welcome to Tax Watch, a new feature focused on the fight over tax reform and the push to extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts this year.

President Trump has made numerous promises on individual tax cuts in addition to the extension of his sweeping 2017 tax cuts — the last major reform to the U.S. revenue system that Senate Republicans are now working to make permanent.

Three of those promises — canceling taxes on tip compensation, overtime pay, and Social Security — look to be at the top of his tax agenda, which he met with Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee about this week.

“The President very much wants to make sure we see no tax on tips, Social Security … and overtime. Those are all important priorities to the President,” committee member Steve Daines (R-Mont.) said after the meeting with Trump.

Trump also mentioned his auto loan interest deduction proposal while addressing Congress earlier this month.

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