Democrats on Friday twice blocked a proposal from Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) to pay federal staff throughout the shutdown.
A movement to advance a invoice to pay excepted staff and members of the navy — or those that need to work unpaid throughout the funding deadlock — failed 53-47 Friday night. It wanted 60 votes to advance.
Three Democrats — Sen. Jon Ossoff (Ga.), Raphael Warnock (Ga.) and Ben Ray Luján (N.M.) — crossed the aisle to help the measure.
Whereas the invoice solely included excepted staff, Johnson stated on the ground he meant to amend it to incorporate furloughed staff if it superior.
Earlier within the day, Johnson had tried to get unanimous consent to cross a model of the identical invoice that included furloughed staff.
Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) objected. However he first requested to change the request to as a substitute cross his personal invoice, the Navy and Federal Worker Safety Act, which might pay servicemembers, federal staff, and contractors from October 1 to the date the invoice is enacted.
“I’m concerned that Sen. Johnson’s bill still leaves too much discretion up to President Trump,” Peters stated.
“There’s too much wiggle room for the administration to basically pick and choose which federal employees are paid and when,” he added.
Johnson cried foul, noting he altered his invoice “dramatically” in current weeks to be able to search the help of Peters and different Democrats. He additionally famous scores of unions are backing the proposal.
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The motion additionally set off Senate Majority Chief John Thune (R-S.D.), who was animated on the ground after the objection and lambasted Democrats for the transfer.
“This is a straightforward approach that addresses that issue,” Thune stated, his voice rising. “And everybody in this chamber who isn’t getting paid — I can’t believe people come down here and look these people in the eye when he’s saying right here we will pay them, not only for today but for tomorrow and the entire year, and we won’t allow them to be held hostage and be pawns in a political game in the future.”
Peters has been part of bipartisan negotiations, although these appeared to collapse Thursday.
Up to date at 6:44 p.m.
