The Senate on Friday rejected a stopgap funding measure, leaving the government in a partial shutdown for another day. It marked the third time this week Democrats in the upper chamber blocked passage of a continuing resolution.
The vote was 54-44, with 60 votes needed to break cloture and end the shutdown. Democrat Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, as well as independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, again voted with most Republicans to advance the bill. As in previous votes, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was the only Republican to vote against advancing the measure.
With no deal in sight, the shutdown will stretch into the weekend as both chambers brace for another round of partisan brinkmanship. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., reportedly said before the vote he would send senators home for the weekend if Democrats again blocked the GOP plan.
The vote followed a Democrat-backed plan that failed to clear the 60-vote threshold; that proposal would have repealed provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that barred certain illegal immigrants from receiving Medicaid payments.
The push drew sharp GOP opposition, with Republicans denouncing it as a backdoor attempt to restore Medicaid benefits for illegal immigrants that had been cut under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
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