Everybody knows that Sen. Rand Paul plans to oppose the funding bill and that he loathes last-minute federal budgets, but the Kentucky Republican hasn't said whether he'll hold up the $1.3 trillion omnibus package.
Paul caused a brief shutdown in February when he refused to consent to time agreements to bring the bill to the Senate floor to avoid a shutdown.
Congress just released the proposal Wednesday night, and the House will ostensibly vote on it Thursday, leaving the Senate little time to digest it all ahead of Friday's 11:59 p.m. deadline to avoid a third shutdown.
"Really, should we be looking at 1,000 page bills with 24 hours to decide what's in them? It's really not a good way to run your government," Paul told McClatchy.
Paul said Tuesday "I will oppose the bill," CNN reported, but Wednesday wouldn't say whether he'll hold up the bill as he did in February.
"I'm undecided on what is unknown," Paul told reporters Wednesday before details were released by the House. "How can people make a decision on bills that don't exist? So they need to put the bill forward and its inexcusable to have something they've had months to look at but there's no bill for us to look at."
As for the bill itself, Paul panned it Wednesday.
Republican Senate leaders were unhappy with Paul's play in February that caused the shutdown, and they're not quite sure what to expect from him this time.
"My assumption is that we'll have members who will want to take some time to look it over and they deserve to have the right to do that, so we'll see how that affects our schedule going into the weekend," The Hill quoted No. 3 Republican Sen. John Thune.
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