US Senate advances bill to end federal shutdown

The Star

The US Senate on Nov 9 moved forward on a measure aimed at reopening the federal government and ending a now 40-day shutdown that has sidelined federal workers, delayed food aid and snarled air travel.  In a procedural vote, senators advanced a House-passed bill that will be amended to fund the government until January 30 and include a package of three full-year appropriations bills.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00On this vote, the yeas are 60 and the nays are 40.

00:03Three-fifths of the Senate duly chose...

00:05The U.S. Senate on Sunday night moved forward on a measure aimed at reopening the federal government

00:11and ending a now 40-day shutdown that has sidelined federal workers,

00:16delayed food aid, and snarled air travel.

00:18In a procedural vote, senators advanced a House-passed bill

00:22that will be amended to fund the government until January 30th

00:25and include a package of three full-year appropriations bills.

00:28The vote to advance the bill passed by a 60-40 margin,

00:32the minimum needed to overcome a Senate filibuster.

00:35A handful of senators from the Democratic Party voted to pass the bill

00:39under a deal with Republican senators to extend subsidies

00:43and help lower-income Americans pay for private health insurance.

00:47My vote today was to do two things, both equally morally important and imperative.

00:55One is to make sure that the government is functioning

00:57so that our kids eat, so that our elderly citizens eat,

01:01so that our air traffic controllers can get some sleep and earn money,

01:04get paid while they are working, so that our veterans are protected,

01:10and continue the fight to a realistic platform to get the premium tax cuts done.

01:17And if that is not successful, then shame on the Republican Party and shame on Donald Trump.

01:24Two million federal workers, not just my 300,000,

01:27two million federal workers who are not uniformed military

01:30now have a guarantee of no rifts going forward.

01:34So they don't have to go into the holiday season with anxiety

01:37about what's going to show up on their email one morning at 5.30 a.m.

01:41That's a big win for two million federal employees.

01:45And added together with these other ingredients of robust appropriations bills

01:50and a guaranteed path forward to vote on fixing the ACA,

01:54that made me sign on and say, yes, we can do it.

01:57When the Senate reconvenes on Monday, Republican leaders will try to get a bipartisan agreement

02:03to circumvent Senate rules and move quickly to passage.

02:07Otherwise, the chamber would require much of the coming week

02:10to move through procedural actions before voting on final passage,

02:16possibly extending the shutdown into next weekend.

02:19U.S. President Donald Trump, who returned to the White House

02:22from his weekend stay in his Florida home,

02:24told reporters that the government shutdown may be nearing a resolution.

02:29We'll never agree to give any substantial money or any money

02:33to really prisoners, illegals that come into our country.

02:38And I think the Democrats understand that.

02:40And it looks like we're getting close to the shutdown ending.

02:44You'll know very soon. Thank you very much.

02:46The amended bill would prohibit federal agencies from firing employees

02:50until January 30th, a win for federal worker unions and their allies.

02:57It would stall the White House's plan to downsize the federal workforce.

03:01Some 2.2 million civilians worked for the federal government

03:04at the start of Trump's second term.

03:07But at least 300,000 employees are expected to leave the government

03:11by the end of this year due to Trump's downsizing effort.

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