Senate Democrats are warning that if the Senate GOP approves the House-passed package to claw back government funding, that could poison the well for bipartisan work on funding the government past Sept. 30.
In a letter to Democratic senators, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said passage of those rescissions “would be an affront to the bipartisan appropriations process.”
Senate Republicans have largely shut out Democrats from legislating of late, and can pass the rescissions package with just 50 votes, though it’s still not clear that they’ll manage. But they’ll need 60 votes to fund the government this fall.
Schumer said Republicans are “proposing Congress negotiate bipartisan deals in the committee room, while they retreat to a backroom to rubberstamp President Trump’s purely partisan scheme.”