– Senate Votes To End Government Shutdown: Stocks Surge To New All Time High:
Update 2 and final: Shortly before 1pm ET, the Senate voted to advance a funding bill in an 81 to 18 vote, that will reopen the government, ending a three-day standoff that left federal agencies shuttered and hundreds of thousands of workers furloughed. Democrats agreed to advance a stopgap spending measure lasting until Feb. 8 after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promised to allow an immigration bill to reach the floor next month.
“After several discussions, offers and counteroffers, the Republican leader and I have come to an arrangement. We will vote today to reopen the government to continue negotiating a global agreement,” Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said ahead of the vote.
The three-week funding bill still needs to pass on a final up-or-down vote, but that is a formality now that the Senate has voted to end dilatory debate.
Schumer said McConnell has committed that if negotiators fail to reach an immigration deal before the stopgap spending measure expires on Feb. 8 “the Senate will immediately proceed to consideration of legislation” to protect Dreamers.
He said McConnell has promised that immigration debate “will be neutral and fair to all sides.” “Now there is a real pathway to get a bill on the floor and through the Senate. It is a good solution and I will vote for it,” Schumer added.
In other words, absent Trump caving on DACA – which is unlikely – the next government shutdown will take place just after midnight on Friday, February 9, which is that much closer to the debt ceiling X-Date…
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