Senate tees up defense spending vote for Thursday amid government shutdown

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is expected to bring an appropriations bill to the chamber floor on Thursday that would fund the Pentagon for a year, despite the ongoing government shutdown.

Senate Democrats have not committed to supporting the defense bill and have been nearly united in their opposition to a continuing resolution that would reopen the federal government. Democratic Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada have sided with Republicans on the resolution.

The defense bill already cleared the appropriations' committee earlier this year in a 26-3 vote and would restore military pay for service members amid the shutdown.

“It seems like it’s a hard vote,” Thune told The Hill. “Because they all say they want a normal appropriations process, and we’re trying to give them one. I get it, it’s in the middle of a shutdown, which is a complicating dynamic here.

“We need to get the appropriations process going either way,” he continued. “If we’re sitting around here voting every day and they keep voting to keep the government shut down, we need to be trying to move the needle on some of the other stuff that we need to get done.”

Senate Democrats told the outlet that their support for the Pentagon bill would depend on what measures Republicans attempt to attach to it. 

The Senate is also expected to vote Thursday for the 10th time on whether to advance the House-passed continuing resolution, which would keep the government funded through Nov. 21. The vote is expected to take place at 11 a.m. Eastern.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.