AP Photo McConnell makes first move to avoid shutdown

The Senate will start voting Monday to avert a government shutdown, leaving the House to either accept it or force federal agencies in Washington to shutter their doors.

After a government spending bill that would also defund Planned Parenthood went down in flames on the Senate floor on Thursday afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell bit the bullet and set up votes for next week that would keep the government open through Dec. 11 without touching Planned Parenthood.


McConnell’s work isn’t done, though. Now he's just got to round up 13 Republican colleagues to vote with him and the chamber's 46 Democratic caucus members. A key procedural vote will occur at 5:30 p.m. Monday, and final passage of the stopgap funding bill that does not defund Planned Parenthood will come no later than Tuesday night.

“Democrats’ insistence on blocking the strategy pursued today means we have to consider the options now before us," McConnell said. "The reality is that the government will shut down next week if Congress doesn’t act."

It was clear by the disastrous result for a conservative-backed plan, devised by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), that there is scant Senate support for a government spending bill that would also defund Planned Parenthood. Eight Republicans voted against the Cruz plan, including presidential rival Rand Paul, a Kentucky senator who called the bill "business as usual" while reiterating that he supports defunding Planned Parenthood.

McConnell said little after setting up the clean funding bill, though his chief deputy Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), said the fight against Planned Parenthood "does not end with this vote."

The vote was taken with the intention of demonstrating to the GOP base that Cruz's plan was unworkable. And Thursday's vote did just that: It failed 47-52 due to bipartisan opposition, allowing McConnell to argue a clean stopgap funding measure is the only solution left.

Senators expected the votes on the clean continuing resolution to begin on Monday.

"I believe that Republicans should act like Republicans," Cruz told reporters Thursday. "We have majorities in both houses of Congress, and the voters have gotten wise to leadership’s practice of show votes. And they are interested in Republican majorities of Congress actually standing up and defending the principles we promised we would defend when we were elected."

When asked to elaborate on what tactics he may use, Cruz declined: "It is not my habit to share with the press particular legislative strategy." McConnell and Cruz did not speak on the Senate floor Thursday afternoon, and though Cruz talked in a caucus lunch, it was not about the funding fight.

The move by the Senate leader presents House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) with a do-or-die vote on a clean funding bill. House Republican leaders huddled on Thursday afternoon and will meet with the full caucus first thing Friday morning.

The Senate is likely to finish a government funding bill by early next week to avoid an Oct. 1 shutdown, and if Boehner were to try to move a different measure from the clean bill the Senate is expected to pass early next week, the Senate would likely not have enough time to pass it and Congress would breach the shutdown deadline.

"The House has got their own process right now and I think they're kind of waiting to see what we do and it seems like at least for right now the understanding is, we have ball control on this," said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, a GOP leader who speaks frequently with House members. "We'll, depending on how this goes, end up with what would be what I suppose characterized as a clean CR."

The speaker has not indicated whether he will accept the Senate’s plan and has been less vocal than McConnell in guaranteeing there will not be a shutdown, leaving the ultimate outcome in doubt.

For days, McConnell refused to confirm that he will move a spending bill free of Planned Parenthood riders on Thursday that will fund the government through Dec. 11, though it’s his only path to avoiding blame for a shutdown. Aides said McConnell personally told Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) of his intentions to move a clean spending bill, which is the only legislation Democrats will accept.

And multiple GOP senators have admitted a clean funding bill is the only workable solution for Congress.

“The majority leader’s strategy makes sense. Because it will give people the opportunity to vote to defund Planned Parenthood if they want to,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). It “will demonstrate to the House that we really need a clean CR if we’re going to avoid a government shutdown.”

And while Cruz's plan to fund the government won significant support from Republicans, it drew far more opposition than expected. Conservatives like Paul and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) voted against the measure, saying it shortchanges the military, along with moderates like Collins and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, who have no intention of being associated with a shutdown threat.

But Cruz, however lonely, has continued to fight. On Wednesday, Cruz made his latest attack on McConnell’s leadership, though it’s hard to out-do his summertime charge that the GOP leader is a liar. Cruz dubbed McConnell’s strategy “surrender” and called the Thursday vote a designed-to-fail “show vote,” arguing Republicans can win on the Planned Parenthood gambit if they stand together and blame President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats for the looming shutdown.

“If Obama follows through on his threat to veto funding for the federal government, we should force him to defend that radical position,” Cruz wrote in a POLITICO op-ed. “When Reagan was president, there were eight partial shutdowns, including six before his historic 1984 reelection. The world didn’t end. But that’s what happens sometimes when a leader fights for his principles.”

Jake Sherman contributed to this report.