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Senate Blocks Republican Stopgap From Advancing

Aid to Flint, Michigan, remains a stumbling block

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., holds a copy of his opening remarks as he speaks to the press about the continuing resolution in the Ohio Clock Corridor following the Senate Republicans' weekly policy lunch in the Capitol on Tuesday. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., holds a copy of his opening remarks as he speaks to the press about the continuing resolution in the Ohio Clock Corridor following the Senate Republicans' weekly policy lunch in the Capitol on Tuesday. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

The Senate on Tuesday voted 45-55 not to cut off debate on a 10-week continuing resolution proposed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to keep government agencies and programs funded into December.

In addition to the stopgap funds, the package would have provided $1.1 billion to combat the Zika virus outbreak and $82.5 billion in fiscal 2017 Military Construction-VA discretionary spending, as well as $500 million to help disaster-affected states including flood-ravaged Louisiana. Sixty votes were needed to invoke cloture.

Senate Democrats voted overwhelmingly against the legislation largely due to the lack of funding to help citizens in Flint, Michigan, who have been grappling with a lead-contaminated water supply. Democrats also objected to a continued block in the McConnell proposal on a Securities and Exchange Commission rule that would require publicly traded companies to disclose political spending.

Tuesday’s vote marks the fourth time Democrats have blocked Zika aid from moving forward, but the first time they’ve blocked the aid as part of a stopgap measure to keep the government running past the end of fiscal 2016 at midnight Friday.

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