Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced he will bring legislation to the Senate floor Tuesday to fund the government into March as a shutdown deadline looms Friday.
“A majority of Democrats and Republicans don’t want to shut down, but there’s a group – a hard-right group – particularly in the House, some in the Senate, who want to bully their way into forcing a shutdown,” the New York Democrat said during a press conference Sunday. “That cannot happen.”
The two-tiered continuing resolution deal, which would fund the government past both shutdown deadlines through March 1 and March 8, was reached just days before the first funding deadline of January 19. A spokesperson for Schumer told CNN the full text of the resolution will likely be posted Sunday evening.
“We need strong bipartisan support in the House and Senate to prevent the shutdown, to overcome the band of MAGA extremists who somehow, in some dark thinking, think a shutdown would be good for America and the American people,” Schumer said.
Last weekend, Schumer and House Speaker Mike Johnson announced they had struck a funding agreement on topline spending numbers – a deal far-right members of the House have slammed.
But Johnson said Friday the deal remains in place after he appeared to be at least entertaining the idea of abandoning it in meetings with conservatives.
The agreement includes $1.59 trillion for fiscal year 2024, with $886 billion for defense spending and $704 billion in non-defense spending. Schumer and Johnson also agreed to a $69 billion side deal in adjustments that will go toward non-defense domestic spending.
Schumer called on Democrats and Republicans to work across the aisle to keep the government open, saying Minority Leader Mitch McConnell agrees with his position.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “Some of these…
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