Senate Democrats blocked four resolutions to fund government programs, including paying the National Guard and opening national parks, as Republicans offered the limited measures in an attempt to win the government shutdown fight by financing popular programs and leaving those they oppose untouched.
“Unbelievably, today Senate Democrats went on record to oppose funding for National Guard and Reserve salaries, veterans’ services, lifesaving medicine and cures, and national parks and museums,” Senate Republican Conference chairman John Thune, R-S.D., said in a release following the procedural battle.
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Thune offered a measure that would ensure the National Guard and Reserve units do not see their pay interrupted, and Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., called for the Senate to fund the National Institutes of Health. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., blocked the measures.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., defended the maneuvers during a press conference Thursday afternoon. “To fund these piecemeal bills would give Ted Cruz a veto power over what is funded and what isn’t,” Schumer said. “We are not going along with that — how could we?”