Democrats on Thursday blocked legislation proposed by a conservative Republican senator to pay some federal workers, like the military, during the government shutdown, which they argued would let President Donald Trump pick and choose who does or does not get a paycheck.
The Senate voted 54-45 on legislation introduced by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) to pay excepted federal workers — those who must keep working even while no checks are being cut — on the 23rd day of the government shutdown.
Democratic Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, as well as Georgia’s Democratic Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, all in up-for-grabs seats, voted with Republicans, while Senate Majority Leader John Thune — seeing that the bill would not pass — changed his vote to “no” to allow the measure to be reintroduced in the future.
But most Democratic senators took issue with the fact that the legislation would allow only for “excepted” federal employees as defined by the Office of Personnel Management to be paid during the shutdown.
“I would call it the, ‘Let the President Decide who he feels Like Paying Act,’” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) told The Independent after the vote.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized the legislation on the floor.
“That's not the way you govern,” he said ahead of the vote. “But that seems to be the way that Trump seems to govern. Our bill is an antidote to that awful way that Trump uses, when he picks winners and losers that he likes and hates.”
Throughout the shutdown, Democrats have pointed out how Trump has allowed Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought to determine which projects to cancel and whether to lay off federal workers. Just this week, Trump compared Vought to Darth Vader.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) repeated the sentiment as he represents numerous federal employees.
“Would you trust Russ Vought to decide who gets paid and who doesn't get paid?” Warner told The Independent. “The law is everybody ought to get paid.”
Democrats attempted to put forward their own legislation sponsored by Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) to pay all federal workers, but that legislation was blocked.
Van Hollen said he and Johnson began speaking after the votes ended about coming to an agreement.
“Federal employees have not been fired in any previous shutdowns, whether they're Democratic administrations or Republican administrations, and so we want that protection,” Van Hollen said.
Johnson seemed optimistic about future opportunities to pass the bill.
“I’ve been twisting arms, but we'll see,” he told The Independent.
The vote came as Democrats continue to block a stopgap continuing resolution to reopen the government as they hope to have Republicans renew enhanced tax credits for the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplace.
So far, the president has rebuffed Democrats. Just this week, he said he would not meet with Schumer or House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries until the the government reopened.
Prior to the vote, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) suggested that if the vote failed, Republicans should entertain getting rid of the filibuster. Afterward, he said Republicans should consider it.
“Everybody's gonna do some soul searching to see what we really want to do,” he told The Independent. The freshman suggested that Republicans change the rules to allow for a filibuster threshold to be lowered to 55 votes instead of 60 and stipulate it could not be used to raise taxes or spending.
“But that's a new guy's point of view,” he said. “There's plenty of guys that are smarter and been here a long, a long time, that they have other points of view.”
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