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Senate moves ahead on short-term spending bill after Manchin-backed provision is removed

cigaretteman

HR King
May 29, 2001
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The Senate moved ahead on a short-term spending bill to avoid a partial government shutdown later this week, a sweeping measure that would provide more than $12 billion to Ukraine, steer millions to Jackson, Miss., to deal with its water crisis and deliver billions in domestic disaster aid.
The chamber advanced the bill by a vote of 72-23, Azi Paybarah reports.
The bill would fund the government through Dec. 16, giving negotiators more time to work out their differences and agree on government spending for fiscal 2023. The bill, known as a continuing resolution and released late Monday, would avert a shutdown that would begin Saturday.
Moments before a procedural vote Tuesday night, Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) asked — and Democratic leaders agreed — to drop a hard-fought provision on permit reform.
“It is unfortunate that members of the United States Senate are allowing politics to put the energy security of our nation at risk,” Manchin said in a statement. “The last several months, we have seen firsthand the destruction that is possible as Vladimir Putin continues to weaponize energy. A failed vote on something as critical as comprehensive permitting reform only serves to embolden leaders like Putin who wish to see America fail. For that reason and my firmly held belief that we should never come to the brink of a government shutdown over politics, I have asked Majority Leader Schumer to remove the permitting language from the Continuing Resolution we will vote on this evening.”
Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), in remarks on the Senate floor, said he had agreed to Manchin’s request.
The deal to accelerate the approval process for building new energy projects — which Republicans said was necessary to lower rising energy costs — was key to Schumer securing the vote of Manchin, the centrist Democrat from West Virginia, for the sweeping climate, health-care and deficit-reduction law Biden signed in August.
 
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