‘Came as a surprise to me’: Senators ‘troubled’ by one aspect of government funding bill

WASHINGTON — Several Republican senators tell Raw Story that they’re unwilling to support the House version of the continuing resolution (CR) that would raise the debt ceiling. The Republican-led Congress is facing another government shutdown, with a deadline of 11:59 p.m. Thursday, March 14. After passing the measure, the House left town for two weeks, leaving the U.S. Senate to navigate the rest. However, many Republican senators whose votes are crucial to passing the CR aren’t happy with it. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) made it clear, “I would not vote for this CR.”Semafor reported Wednesday morning that Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) were also likely “no” votes. When Raw Story and other reporters spoke with Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), she confessed she didn’t know what was in the bill and found some things concerning. One of those was a massive cut in the budget for Washington, D.C.“That was not a provision that was in the Senate bill, or anything that we advocated for. It came as a surprise to me, and explains why the mayor has called me,” Collins said. Her home state newspaper, the Bangor Daily News, reported late Tuesday that the House bill may result in huge state budget cuts to Maine. “U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King have led their Capitol Hill peers in obtaining earmarks worth hundreds of millions of dollars for Maine projects, but they would not be included in a bill that would avert a federal government shutdown,” the report said. Collins faces reelection in 2026. Her House college, Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), was the only Democrat to support the CR, despite the cuts in funding to his state, the Bangor Daily News also reported. This comes at a time when WGME reported that President Donald Trump’s budget cuts meant that civilian staff at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard were also laid off this week.The head of the union told WGME that the people making such decisions “are not educated about the business end of what we do.”Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) agreed that the D.C. funding cuts made it harder for him to support. “It is a purely mean-spirited hit at the district and it’s outrageous,” he told Raw Story. When asked whether he’d vote for the CR, his fellow Virginia senator, Tim Kaine (D), said he’s looking to attach amendments to the bill to try and save it. However, this would require the House to approve the bill again at a time when they’ve already skipped town. When it comes to the D.C. funding, Kaine said he was with Mayor Muriel Bowser Tuesday night, and both found the strings attached to the district “troubling.””It’s one thing if you say, okay, we’re going to reduce federal funding to the district. It’s another thing to say we’re going to control your budget so that you can’t even use your own tax revenue to have a budget above X. That’s like — where’s the precedent for that? I mean, it’s just like — I don’t even know how that got in there like that. I don’t know what they’re trying to accomplish. It just seems like a gratuitous eye-poke.” Raw Story asked if he’d propose an amendment, and Kaine said it should be removed entirely. Democrats entered their lunch meeting to discuss whether they should support the CR, and if they’ll be blamed for the shutdown. Republicans hold all power in the House, Senate and White House, however.

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