LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Nevada’s two Democratic senators split their decisions Friday ahead of a vote in the U.S. Senate to avoid a potential partial federal government shutdown.
At least eight Democrats need to join with Republicans to advance the spending bill to a 60-vote threshold. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto said Friday morning she would vote “yes,” while Sen. Jacky Rosen said she would vote “no.”
The continuing spending measure, which would fund the government through September, narrowly passed the U.S. House on Tuesday with all but one Republican voting for it and one Democrat. The three Democratic congresspeople representing southern Nevada voted against the budget plan.
Congress has been unable to pass the annual appropriations bills designed to fund the government, so it’s resorted to passing short-term extensions instead. The legislation before the Senate is the third such continuing resolution for the current fiscal year, now nearly half over.
The spending plan would trim non-defense spending by about $13 billion from the previous year and increase defense spending by about $6 billion, which are marginal changes when talking about a topline spending level of nearly $1.7 trillion.
“A government shutdown would be devastating for the American people,” Cortez Masto said in a statement. “It would force tens of thousands of Nevada military personnel, union members, law enforcement agents and nurses to work without pay. Shutting down the government gives President Trump and Elon Musk even more power to cherry-pick who is an essential employee, who they want to fire, and what agencies they want to shutter. And a shutdown would force federal courts to slow work on lawsuits against this administration’s illegal actions. The last government shutdown cost the American economy $11 billion and thousands of hardworking Americans were harmed. I cannot vote for that.”
The senator said it was “not an easy decision.”
“Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress have complete control of the federal government, and they’re using their power to help Elon Musk continue to systematically dismantle basic government functions from veterans’ health care to aviation safety and cancer research,” Rosen said in a statement. “I cannot vote for an irresponsible and hyper-partisan bill that gives Trump and Musk even more power to hurt millions of Americans all while Congressional Republicans continue to push for cuts to Medicaid to pay for more tax breaks for the ultra-rich and giant corporations. Funding the government requires actually working together across party lines to find common ground, and the Republicans in power failed to do so.”
Republicans control all branches of government, though with slim majorities in the House and Senate, need bipartisan support in the upper chamber.
The spending bill before the Senate is separate from the GOP effort to extend tax cuts for individuals passed in Trump’s first term and to partially pay for them with spending cuts elsewhere in government.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
