The Senate will vote on a massive defense spending bill on Thursday afternoon after Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) thrown a curveball In a fight over government funding earlier this week.
Thune is effectively emboldening Democrats to oppose the $852 billion bill as the GOP seeks to shift the narrative from health care to military spending. Republicans and Democrats are also debating who is to blame for putting military pay at risk amid the shutdown.
The full-year bill is the result of a bipartisan appropriations process and passed out of committee on a 26-3 vote earlier this year.
It’s unclear how Democrats will handle the vote, but they have been largely united in opposition to a short-term bill to reopen the government, as they have sought to extend Obamacare subsidies that expire at the end of the year.
“It looks like it’s a tough vote,” Thune told The Hill about the defense bill on Wednesday. “Because they all say they want a normal appropriations process, and we’re trying to give them one. I get it, this is in the middle of the shutdown, which is a complicated dynamic here.”
Watch a live stream of the Senate floor with voting beginning around 1:30 p.m.
