Up is down, down is up: Senate Republicans on Saturday are going to vote against a funding bill that many of them support.
The reason: They want to see if the House can pass its 45-day “clean” spending patch on a bipartisan basis before making any more moves on the Senate’s legislation, which includes Ukraine funding.
Flanked by many members of his conference, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell laid it out in black and white shortly before 2 p.m.
“It looks like there may be a bipartisan agreement coming from the House. So I’m fairly confident that most of our members are going to vote against cloture. Not necessarily because they’re opposed to the underlying bill — to see what the House can do on a bipartisan basis, and then bring it over” McConnell said.
“So, under these circumstances, I’m recommending a no vote,” he added. “Even though I very much want to avoid a government shutdown.”
It’s not clear how Democrats will react to that play, or whether the Senate will even hold that cloture vote. But Democrats are not happy to see the GOP turning away from the bipartisan bill they negotiated together.
“I don’t understand how so many people said they’d be there for Ukraine now suddenly are saying [to do] the current House version. It not only cuts off Ukraine but cuts off transfer authority,” said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.).
