Senate advances budget deal that doesn't exist yet

[rangerrebew]

Senate advances budget deal that doesn't exist yet

By Ben Weyl, Seung Min Kim and Burgess Everett

09/20/16 04:55 PM EDT

Updated 09/20/16 06:27 PM EDT
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Mitch McConnell summoned his Republican Conference to a late afternoon meeting on Tuesday with an unusual ask: Would his colleagues support moving forward on a spending deal that doesn’t even exist yet?

The answer, surprisingly, was yes.

The Senate voted 89-7 on Tuesday evening to move forward on a bill that eventually will be used to fund the government through Dec. 9 and deliver $1.1 billion to fight the Zika epidemic. A bloc of conservatives voted no, but the measure easily cleared the 60-vote threshold to avoid a filibuster, powered by votes from Senate Democrats, centrist Republicans and GOP senators up for reelection.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do around here,” said Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.), who voted “no” because of concerns over the unorthodox process.

 

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/senate-budget-deal-campaign-finance-internet-228428#ixzz4KzHamCse
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[geronl]

Senate passing blank checks

[Smokin Joe]

I was under the impression that budget measures were Constitutionally required to originate in the House.

But, from Article 1:

All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.

Maybe they are just spending money, not raising it.