Senate passes first government funding package, setting up clash with House GOP

[ThatRobGuy]

Senate passes first government funding package, setting up clash with House GOP

The Senate on Wednesday passed its first batch of government funding measures for fiscal 2024, teeing up a clash with House Republicans as the party presses for steeper spending cuts and a host of …

thehill.com

“We just passed a strong, bipartisan spending package — the only bipartisan spending bills in Congress, by the way — and we did it with an 82-15 vote,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said after the vote. “So let’s be crystal clear about what that means. Unlike the funding measures we’ve seen pushed through the House, these are serious and reasonable, bipartisan bills that can actually be signed into law. They are the product of months of hard work, careful negotiation, thoughtful input from members on both sides of the aisle.”

However, they contain major differences from their counterparts in the House, where Republicans have taken a harder line on reducing spending for nondefense programs and proposed a slew of measures Democrats have deemed “poison pills” — including provisions to limit abortion access, enforcement of the Biden administration’s equity and diversity orders and more.

 

[PloverWing]

82-15. I'm impressed.

 

[public hermit]

This is good. It feels like the whole reason we have a Senate makes sense- wiser, more institutional knowledge. But in other circumstances, I might decry the fact you can hardly get rid of one.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

This is good. It feels like the whole reason we have a Senate makes sense- wiser, more institutional knowledge. But in other circumstances, I might decry the fact you can hardly get rid of one.

The Senate often comes across as the "mature legislative entity" also due to the fact of how they're elected.

By the very nature of it, a Senator is going to have to be more moderated by necessity in order to get elected (sure, there are some far-left and far-right outliers...but not like what you see in the House)

Everyone in the state votes for the senators (meaning they have to formulate at least some level of appeal across a variety of demographic categories). In a House Rep election, a person can be running for a seat that's in a small "ideologically contained" district.

 

[wing2000]

“We just passed a strong, bipartisan spending package — the only bipartisan spending bills in Congress, by the way — and we did it with an 82-15 vote,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said after the vote. “So let’s be crystal clear about what that means. Unlike the funding measures we’ve seen pushed through the House, these are serious and reasonable, bipartisan bills that can actually be signed into law. They are the product of months of hard work, careful negotiation, thoughtful input from members on both sides of the aisle.”

...nice to see the Senate working together as a governing body should.