YouTube download / AP video / The Senate has advanced a bill reopening federal agencies through Feb. 8 after Democrats relented and lifted their blockade against the legislation. (Jan. 22)
The US Senate voted 81-18 to break the filibuster and reopen the government on this Monday morning. The two sides agreed to keep negotiations towards a settlement on the Dreamers legislation until Feb. 8.
“In a few hours, the government will reopen,” said NY Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader. “We have a lot to do.”
As reported in the New York Times, Schumer announced that he and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, had “come to an arrangement” to adopt the three-week spending measure while continuing to negotiate a “global agreement” that would include the fate of the dreamers, undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children.
“Every day we spend arguing about keeping the lights on is another day we cannot spend negotiating DACA or defense spending or any of our other shared priorities,” McConnell said, as reported by the Times, referring to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the program put in place by the Obama administration that shields young undocumented immigrants from deportation.
-- Henry Frederick, Headline Surfer., Orlando, FL