Senate votes 90-6 to push the shutdown fight past the midterms
The stopgap funds agencies through Dec. 11, then senators left town for five weeks with the House still needing to vote.
The Senate approved the continuing resolution early Saturday by a bipartisan 90-6 vote, an 84-vote margin. The bill would fund the government through Dec. 11, moving the deadline 71 days beyond Oct. 1 and past the November midterms. Senators then left for a five-week recess. The House has not voted on the measure and will return in September.
Some numbers behind the new deadline:
- Fiscal 1997 was the last time Congress finished all 12 appropriations bills before a fiscal year began. Every year since has needed a stopgap.
- Dec. 11 lands 38 days after Election Day, inside the lame-duck session — members who just lost their seats still get a vote on it.
- All 435 House seats and roughly a third of the Senate are on the ballot Nov. 3.
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