WASHINGTON– Senate Republicans ran into an unexpected road block on their path to funding the government around midnight on Thursday and into early Friday, after Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., held up the vote on a bi-partisan budget deal in the name of fiscal responsibility. The Republican deficit hawk criticized the deal, which would suspend the government budget ceiling through March 2019 to allow for discretionary spending on defense, healthcare, education and other government services.
Debate on Paul’s amendment began at 1 a.m. on Friday following the shutdown’s midnight deadline, but the amendment failed and a vote on the budget deal immediately followed and passed the Senate 71-28. Just after 5 a.m., the House approved the deal, and the bill received President Trump’s signature before 8 a.m. to make this shutdown the shortest in American history.