Bi-partisan compromise in the works after two dueling bills to end government shutdown fail
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(ABC NEWS) – Two dueling bills to end the partial government shutdown have failed Thursday (1/24). One proposal came from President Trump; the other was from democrats.
The two votes in the Senate on two competing measures to reopen the government failed, largely along party lines, although six Republicans broke ranks to support the Democrats’ effort.
On the first measure that encompassed the president’s demand for $5.7 billion for his border wall, along with strict restrictions on the current asylum system and limited protections for so-called Dreamers, senators voted down the measure, 50-47, with two GOP senators, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Mike Lee of Utah, opposing the bill, while Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia supported it.
The vote on the second measure, a stop-gap bill sponsored by Schumer, that would have funded the government until Feb. 8 with billions in disaster relief but none for a border wall, was supported by all Democrats and six Republicans – Mitt Romney of Utah, Tennessee’s Lamar Alexander, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Maine’s Susan Collins, and Cory Gardner of Colorado. The latter two are up for re-election in 2020 in states that Donald Trump lost.
