Nine Republican senators voted against a government spending bill passed by the House of Representatives in a last-minute effort to avoid a government shutdown on Saturday.
Congress passed the spending bill with just hours left until the end-of-September deadline for passing a series of appropriations bills to fund the government through the next fiscal year. House Republicans were unable to reach a deal on a spending bill, with the party’s most conservative flank withholding their support, prompting House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to push a short term spending bill that keeps federal funding at its current levels, but does not include additional funding for Ukraine, for 45 days.
It passed both the House and Senate with bipartisan support, with members of both parties rallying in support of it to avoid a shutdown, which could have impacted millions of Americans, including hundreds of thousands of federal workers across the country who would have been furloughed.
Congress now has until November 17 to pass legislation to fund the government to avoid a shutdown, leaving them more than a month to reach an agreement. McCarthy, a California Republican, is tasked with striking a deal that will both pass the Democratic-led Senate while also appeasing his conference’s most conservative members, who have threatened to file a motion to vacate his position if he opts to negotiate with moderate Democrats instead of them.
For now, however, the government will remain open. The House legislation easily passed the Senate late Saturday night, on a 88-9 vote. Several Republicans voted against the bill, also referred to as a continuing resolution (CR).
Here is a list of the nine GOP senators who opposed the legislation:
Senator Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee)Senator Mike Braun (Indiana)Senator Ted Cruz (Texas)Senator Bill Hagerty (Tennessee)Senator Mike Lee (Utah)Senator Roger Marshall (Kansas)Senator Rand Paul (Kentucky)Senator Eric Schmitt (Missouri)Senator J.D. Vance (Ohio)
Schmitt said in a statement to Newsweek on Sunday that his vote against the bill was a vote “for reforming a broken system and against a bloated budget.”
“In the coming weeks, I intend to push for structural reforms to ensure the deadline dealmaking ends and we have an open and transparent process that stops reckless spending and improves the lives of Americans,” he said.
On Sunday afternoon, Blackburn wrote in a statement to Newsweek, “No one wins in a government shutdown, however, this legislation did nothing to address Biden’s open border, nor did it reduce Biden’s reckless government spending. In FY2023 alone, Border Patrol confiscated enough fentanyl to kill the entire population of the United States and encountered well over 2 million illegal immigrants along our southern border. Biden’s open border policy has created a humanitarian, national security, and drug crisis.”
Braun wrote in an opinion piece for The Hill last week and said that Congress needed to take action to pass bipartisan legislation that would avoid a shutdown, pointing to several bills that have been introduced, such as a bill that would prevent members of Congress from being paid during a shutdown, or several that would continue to fund the government if Congress can’t reach a deal on the spending bills. His office referred to that piece when reached for comment by Newsweek on Sunday morning.
Hagerty wrote in a post to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that he did not vote for the bill because he believes it inadequately addresses the U.S.-Mexico border.
“During negotiations around a Continuing Resolution, I made very clear that I wouldn’t support any short-term funding bill that didn’t include serious border-security measures to help put an end to the Biden Border crisis, & I’m keeping that commitment,” he wrote.
Marshall expressed similar reasoning for his opposition.
“The CR does nothing to address our most immediate national security threat- our open southern border & the fentanyl pouring in. With a $33 trillion debt crisis, it’s never been more clear America can’t afford to continue these spending levels for one more day, let alone, 45,” he posted to X.
Newsweek reached out to each of the senators’ offices for comment via email.
Update 10/01/2023, 4:56 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Blackburn.