GOP, Thune surprise Democrats, daring them to block defense spending bill during shutdown

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has surprised Democrats by scheduling a vote Thursday on advancing the $852 billion defense appropriations bill amid the government shutdown.

The defense measure in July passed out of the Appropriations Committee with strong Democratic support — 26 to 3 — but the political calculus has changed since then because of the government shutdown, which has now dragged into its third week.

Thune pushed the annual National Defense Authorization Act through the Senate last week, and now he’s daring Democrats to block the defense appropriations bill as Republicans are putting a spotlight on how the shutdown is impacting national security.

“Not even the prospect of military families going without a paycheck was enough to reopen the government,” Thune said on the Senate floor Wednesday, making reference to the Oct. 15 pay date for more than 1 million military service members.

President Trump has directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to use “all available funds” to ensure that troops didn’t miss their first paychecks during the shutdown.

Thune on Tuesday filed cloture on a motion to proceed to the defense spending bill, setting up a key procedural vote for Thursday.

He told reporters that he hopes to attach the Labor and Health and Human Services bill to the defense bill if Democrats agree to advance it later this week.

“I think the goal is to see what the traffic will bear in terms of additional bills,” Thune said. “We would like to put together a package like we did last time on the floor, which will take consent.

“If we can get on defense appropriations, which we’ll vote on tomorrow, then we can start that negotiation process."

Thune would need unanimous consent from all 100 senators to waive Senate Rule XVI, which prevents two or multiple appropriations bills from being packaged together on the floor. It was routine practice in past years to waive the rule but the prospects of doing so now are clouded by the partisan tensions inflamed by the shutdown.

Democrats voted to pass the defense spending bill out of committee this summer, but they may block it on the floor this week.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a senior member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, said Wednesday that he hadn’t yet made a public decision on how to vote on the measure.

He said Thune’s decision to set up a vote on the bill “came as a surprise to us.”

Asked how he would vote, he said “wait and see.”