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Paul holding up Senate budget vote

By Jordain Carney - 02/08/18 03:49 PM EST

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is delaying a Senate vote on a funding bill to prevent a government shutdown, throwing Congress's timeline into limbo.

The House and Senate needs to pass the two-year budget deal, which includes a stopgap funding bill, by midnight Thursday in order to prevent the second shutdown in less than a month.

Paul is demanding 15 minutes of debate and a vote on an amendment to keep budget ceilings in place. 

If he doesn't get it, he signaling that he's willing to delay a procedural vote until early Friday morning.  

"If they want to stay up until 3 in the morning, I'm happy to do it," he said on Fox News late Thursday afternoon. 
 
Under Senate rules, the earliest the chamber can take its first vote on the agreement is 1 a.m. Friday, after the deadline, unless every senator agrees to move it up.
 
The House won't hold a vote on the measure until it is approved by the Senate. 

Majority Leader Mitch McConnellAddison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellDems confront Kelly after he calls some immigrants 'lazy' McConnell: 'Whoever gets to 60 wins' on immigration Overnight Defense: Latest on spending fight - House passes stopgap with defense money while Senate nears two-year budget deal | Pentagon planning military parade for Trump | Afghan war will cost B in 2018 MORE (R-Ky.) tried to set up a procedural vote on the budget bill for 6 p.m., but Paul objected. 

"My friend and colleague from Kentucky does not join the president in supporting the bill ... But I would argue that it's time to vote," the GOP leader said. 

Senate Minority Leader Charles SchumerCharles (Chuck) Ellis SchumerGOP lawmaker: Dems not standing for Trump is 'un-American' Trump called for unity — he didn’t even last a week Overnight Defense: GOP plays hardball by attaching defense funding to CR | US reportedly drawing down in Iraq | Russia, US meet arms treaty deadline | Why the military wants 6B from Congress MORE (D-N.Y.) also pleaded with Paul to agree to let the vote be moved up, noting he could make the budget point of order and get a vote. 

"Frankly, there are lots of amendments on my side, and it's hard to make an argument that if one gets an amendment, that everybody else won't want an amendment, and then we'll be here for a very long time," Schumer said. 

He added that with a shutdown looming, he added that: "We're in risky territory here."

Paul said earlier in the day that he isn't pushing for a shutdown but "I'm also not advocating for keeping the damn thing open and borrowing a million dollars a minute."
 
The Kentucky senator has lambasted the two-year budget agreement, which would increase the budget caps by roughly $300 billion and also raise the debt ceiling through March 2019.

On Thursday he called the agreement a "rotten deal." 

"When Republicans are in charge there is no conservative party," he told Fox News. "A lot of so-called conservatives lose their mind when it becomes a partisan thing." 

 

Paul predicted that if he gets a vote on his amendment, roughly 15 senators could side with him. 

Sen. John CornynJohn CornynDems confront Kelly after he calls some immigrants 'lazy' McConnell: 'Whoever gets to 60 wins' on immigration GOP senators turning Trump immigration framework into legislation MORE (Texas), the No. 2 Senate Republican, said that it isn't possible to give Paul a formal amendment vote unless they opened up the floor for other senators to offer amendment votes.

"He wants to offer an amendment but that requires consent and you could imagine there are other people who might like to offer amendments too and that would open it and delay our ability to get this done," Cornyn said.

Instead, he said leadership would talk to him about offering a "point of order."

Asked if he was worried, he added: "I think it will all work out but it's up in the air." 

Updated at 6:04 p.m.

Tags Mitch McConnell Charles Schumer Donald Trump John Cornyn Bob Corker Jeff Flake Rand Paul Senate budget deal Shutdown procedure