Senate Republicans block bill to avert government shutdown – live

Posted by on September 27, 2021 7:04 pm
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Categories: Global Stories

12.04am BST

The Senate failed to pass the spending bill today, setting the government on a path toward shutdown this week, and financial calamity if the lawmakers continue to face an impasse on whether to increase a limit on federal debt.

With only days left until the Thursday deadline to agree on funding the government, Republicans refused to raise the debt limit and support the $3.5 trillion bill, which carries key parts of President Biden’s agenda.

Related: Biden’s agenda hangs in the balance as Democrats negotiate spending bill

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says Republicans will block stopgap funding bill — that could leave GOP to blame for $28T default: “We will not be supplying Republican votes to raising the debt limit.”

Republicans who had voted to raise the debt cap by trillions when their party controlled Washington argued on Monday that Democrats must shoulder the entire political burden for doing so now, given that they control the White House and both houses of Congress. Their position was calculated to portray Democrats as ineffectual and overreaching at a time when they are already toiling to iron out deep party divisions over a $3.5 trillion social safety net and climate change bill, and to pave the way for a bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure measure whose fate is linked to it.

11.30pm BST

A federal judge has given California officials two weeks issue mandatory Covid vaccinations for prison guards, ruling against the wishes of the state’s governor and the prison guard union. Inmates who leave the prisons for work or who receive in-person visitors will also be included in the mandate, the Sacramento Bee reports.

“The question of mandatory vaccines is complex,” US District Judge Jon S. Tigar wrote in the 22-page order. “In this case, however, the relevant facts are undisputed. No one challenges the serious risks that COVID-19 poses to incarcerated persons.”

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