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WASHINGTON — The House developed a six-month bill that would continue funding the government and raise the debt ceiling, while making drastic cuts, but some senators aren't fans of the legislation.
And they're floating just a 30-day stopgap.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, told Raw Story the Senate will not support the House's funding bill this week.
Senate Democrats met for a caucus lunch Wednesday and debated whether to support the House bill or try to amend it. The latter, however, would take more time than they have. The deadline for funding is 11:59 p.m. on Friday. The House would then have to pass an edited bill with the amendments, but they've already left town for the next two weeks.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told Raw Story this morning that he opposed the House's proposal to raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion. He later told reporters that he now has an amendment that could test Senate support for President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency initiative.
ALSO READ: 'Came as a surprise to me': Senators 'troubled' by one aspect of government funding bill
When he came into office, Trump created the program by executive order and handed it over to tech billionaire Elon Musk to manage. That initiative has been behind the upheaval and dismantling of government agencies. Websites, grants, programs, and employees have been cut or frozen under the promise that Trump would save taxpayers trillions. The cuts haven't gone over well, with angry Americans flooding town hall meetings.
Paul's amendment would "attempt to incorporate the DOGE cuts in foreign aid. [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio has stopped 83% of foreign aid grants. In doing so, that would save 83% of our foreign aid grant money. So, we're taking what he has already done and incorporating it into a dollar figure to put into the spending because once he's done it, that's great. So I commend Secretary Rubio for doing it. Now all we need to do is codify that into law."
Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine told Raw Story and other reporters that the Senate Appropriations Committee is "really close to a deal," so a 30-day continuing resolution would give them time to improve the bill and garner bipartisan agreement.
He also mentioned an Armed Services Committee hearing this week with military leaders, revealing that budget cuts and uncertainty hinder their ability to maintain military readiness.
"The way to make it better is to do a 30-day," Kaine said.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) was the first to draw a line in the sand.
"I've been clear: the House Republican CR provides, in my view, a continuing of a blank check to shut down government agencies as they're doing right now," he told reporters. "But, one step at a time. What we're saying is that we need to have a vote on the 30-day and Republicans need to understand that as of today, that's the way to proceed to avoid a government shutdown."
He went on to say that there are a lot of reasons not to like the House stopgap bill, but one element that hands power over to the federal government is to run Washington, D.C. as they see fit. As it stands, D.C. is not a state and all of the laws and measures passed, even on the ballot, must be approved by Congress.
"And it doesn't save taxpayers money!" he exclaimed. "That provision on D.C. is all about Congress trying to run the District of Columbia. It caps their budget at $1 billion. It doesn't cut federal spending at $1 billion."
