The US Senate just blocked the House-passed funding bill to avoid a government shutdown, and two Republicans voted against the bill.
The government funding runs out on October 1st, so they’ve still got time to work something out. But they need 60 votes in the Senate, because of filibuster rules, and right now they are woefully short.
Senate defeats GOP spending bill: 44-48. But needed 60 yeas. Effort to avoid gov’t shutdown blocked
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) September 19, 2025
NEW: Senate votes down stopgap spending bill that had earlier been passed by the House to avoid a government shutdown. Vote was 48-44. House does not plan to return from a break next week on Sept. 30, in effort to jam Senate Democrats on the continuing resolution.
— Mitchell Miller (@mmillerwtop) September 19, 2025
Fox News reports that both Lisa Murkowski and Rand Paul voted against the bill.
While the proposal easily glided through the House with little drama, it hit a brick wall in the Senate and failed 44-48. Only one lawmaker, Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., crossed the aisle to support the Republican plan. Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, also voted against the bill.
There are 8 votes notably absent, which tells me that this wasn’t a true vote. I don’t know who is missing, but if it were a real vote for passage, those 8 people would have been on the record. It could be that when they saw the number of votes in opposition, they just didn’t bother. Not sure.
UPDATE: For what it’s worth, these are the people who didn’t vote:
Banks (R-IN)
Blackburn (R-TN)
Cassidy (R-LA)
Johnson (R-WI)
Lee (R-UT)
Mullin (R-OK)
Scott (R-SC)
Sullivan (R-AK)