Senators have reached a deal to advance the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package.
The deal was announced by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Thursday morning, according to The Hill.
The bill had been stalled because of a dispute on Title 42 asylum restrictions the Biden administration wants to remove, Roll Call reported. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has been pushing for an amendment to bar the White House from stopping Title 42, with Republicans calling for a simple majority to pass the amendment and Democrats wanting to raise the passage limit to 60 votes.
But now, according to The Hill, the amendment will require 51 votes to pass.
"It's taken a while but it's worth it," Schumer said,
Amendment votes are still needed before the omnibus bill passes.
Schumer had filed a cloture petition that set up a vote to end the debate on the bill Friday but was optimistic that a deal was close.
But late Wednesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters that Democrats were denying Lee a vote on extending Title 42 and that he did not think any Republicans would vote for cloture unless that vote happens.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he thinks Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is standing firm on a continuing resolution into next year that will become the Senate's default option if the omnibus doesn't pass.
However, CNN's Ali Zaslav reported on Twitter on Thursday that McConnell said the Senate would finish the massive government funding bill that day, as "someone predicted a while back," referring to himself.
Meanwhile, several amendments are being pushed for inclusion on the omnibus bill, including $1 billion for the World Trade Center Health fund for first responders; $6 billion for a fund for victims of state-sponsored terrorism; and a bipartisan effort to scale back a tax requirement for 2022 that requires online payment platforms to report transactions of more than $600 to the IRS.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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