Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have come to a UniParty agreement to advance two simultaneous bills to end the government shutdown.

The first bill contains the Trump priority agenda; the second bill contains the Pelosi, Schumer, McConnell priority agenda. The senate will get to vote on both bills individually. It is possible, perhaps likely, both will fail. However, watch the defectors. If history is a guide, any defectors will come from the GOPe side of the equation.

(Washington DC) […] The first vote will be on President Trump‘s proposal to to reopen the government, provide $5.7 billion in funding for the border wall and extend legal protections to some immigrants for three years. If that fails, the Senate would then vote on a three-week continuing resolution (CR).

There is no guarantee that either bill can get the votes to pass and break the months-long stalemate that has closed roughly a quarter of the government. But the deal between McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is the first glimmer of progress after weeks of entrenched back-and-forth. Schumer thanked McConnell after he set up the votes and pointed to the Democratic proposal as a way out of the funding fight. “We have a second amendment that could break us out of the morass we are in. …For the first time, we will get a vote on whether to open the government without any decision one way or the other on border security,” Schumer said. (more)