How one GOP senator — Rand Paul — could trigger a government shutdown

Show Caption Hide Caption Sen. Rand Paul Sets to Block Budget Vote Sen. Rand Paul is holding up a vote on the Senate budget deal, demanding more debate on the bill which will add $1.5 trillion to the debt over the next 10 years. Lawmakers are facing a midnight deadline to pass the legislation. (Feb. 7)

WASHINGTON — Sen. Rand Paul, a conservative Kentucky Republican and one-time presidential contender, temporarily blocked a Senate vote on a sweeping bipartisan budget deal on Thursday — a move that could force Congress to miss a midnight funding deadline and trigger a partial government shutdown.

The bipartisan budget deal would lift strict budget caps and pave the way for lawmakers to spend an extra $300 billion over the next two years on defense and domestic programs. It seemed poised to easily clear the Senate — until Thursday afternoon.

That’s when Paul objected and said he would only allow the budget bill to advance if GOP leaders gave him a vote on an amendment to restore the budget caps, set in 2011 to rein in deficit spending. If Paul got an amendment, then every senator would want one. And if any amendment passed, it would blow up the budget agreement.

“All Senator Rand Paul is asking for is a 15-minute vote on his amendment to restore the budget caps,” Paul’s spokesman, Sergio Gor, said in an email Thursday. “He is ready to proceed at any time.”

By Thursday evening, the White House was preparing for a lapse in appropriations. The federal Office of Management and Budget told federal agencies to plan for a "limited shutdown" of perhaps a few hours.

How could one senator potentially cause a government shutdown? Two reasons: the Senate’s arcane rules essentially invite such mischief-making; and congressional leaders waited until the very last minute to unveil their deal, leaving them vulnerable to legislative glitches.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., filed a motion to end debate on the budget deal late Wednesday night. Under Senate rules, lawmakers must wait an “intervening day” before they can vote to cut off debate, unless they get an agreement from all 100 senators to speed up the clock.

McConnell and Schumer figured they’d get that agreement. But they were wrong.

Paul’s objection, if he sticks with it, would force McConnell to wait until 1 a.m. to vote to take up the budget bill and then another 30 hours for debate before final passage. Federal funding for most government programs runs out at midnight.

"I can keep them here until three in the morning," Paul said on Fox News.

Paul said he wasn't pushing for a government shutdown. But he also wasn't interested in keeping the government open for a "reckless" spending deal that busts the budget caps.

"Nobody wants to have it pointed out what an eyesore this deal is and how obnoxious it is to conservatives," Paul told Fox.

Looking exasperated and irritated, McConnell begged his home-state colleague to stop his dilatory tactics and offered to let him make his point with a procedural vote.

"Funding for the government expires in just a few hours," McConnell noted. "I would argue that it's time to vote."

But Paul rejected McConnell's offer and held the floor for what could be an hours-long speech. He noted that the bill is nearly 700 pages long, nobody in the Senate has read it, and it will add more than a trillion dollars to the deficit.

"I want people to feel uncomfortable" voting in favor of big deficits, Paul said.

If and when the budget bill does pass the Senate, it will go to the House where it faces an uncertain fate.

Liberal Democrats object to the deal because it does not include protections for undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and whose Obama-era deportation protections will expire next month. House conservative have the same objections as Paul, arguing that it will pave the way for big spending and ballooning deficits.

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