Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., wants to reignite the government funding process, but Senate Democrats appear unwilling to support his effort. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
"We can actually get the appropriations process going forward," Thune said. "So that's in the works."
And in the Senate, given the 60-vote filibuster threshold, spending bills are prime examples of the many pieces of legislation that have to be bipartisan to pass. But Senate Democrats seemed unwilling to go all in on supporting the defense bill, and like the Republicans’ plan to reopen the government, appear ready to block Thune’s effort.
They want to know exactly what Republicans plan to put on the floor later on, despite the vote on Thursday afternoon being designed to give lawmakers the chance to move forward with at least one of several spending bills that must be passed to fund the government.
"We have to see what they're going to put on the floor," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said. "They haven't told us yet."
Republicans are also eyeing at least three other spending bills to attach to the defense appropriations bill, including legislation that would fund the departments of Labor, Commerce, Transportation, Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development.
REPUBLICANS FUME AS DEMOCRATS BLOCK 9TH GOP BID TO REOPEN GOVERNMENT
An aerial view of the Pentagon. (Reuters)
Thune’s move to reignite the appropriations process, an exercise that played out in the Senate in early August when lawmakers advanced a trio of funding bills ahead of the shutdown deadline, is part of Republicans’ broader desire to fund the government the old-fashioned way, rather than through a colossal omnibus spending package.
It's an exercise, however, that hasn’t been fully completed since the 1990s.
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., noted to Fox News Digital that a major part of selecting a new leader for the Senate GOP was returning to what’s known as regular order, or passing spending to fund the government.
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He argued that when Schumer ran the Senate as majority leader, the upper chamber was often resigned to passing "these omnibus bills that were developed in the, you know, middle of the night with four people."
"We're not interested in that. So we want to get bills on the floor, and they've got to move in a bipartisan way, right? So I think this is something that I would hope Democrats would support, too," he said. "But if their mentality is at this point, you know, just oppose everything Republicans want to do, it's pathological, and I don't have any advice for them except seek help."
Republicans are still trying to reopen the government and plan to put the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) on the floor again Thursday for a 10th time. And just like many times before, it is expected to fail.
When asked if he believed that the shutdown could transform into lawmakers passing spending bills one-by-one to reopen the government, Thune said, "I certainly hope not."
Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/republicans-push-pay-troops-reopen-government-democrats-balk