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Senate Deal To Avert Shutdown Goes To House

DAVID GREENE, Host:

It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. Good morning. I'm David Greene.

STEVE INSKEEP, Host:

NPR's David Welna reports.

DAVID WELNA: So to avoid a shutdown, Majority Leader Harry Reid asked his Senate colleagues to come back to Washington yesterday and vote for a bill identical to that of the House, except this one made no spending cuts to pay for disaster relief. Reid opened the Senate session heaping scorn on the House.

INSKEEP: The House of Representatives, as we speak, on the eve of the government shutting down next Saturday, just a few days from now, and FEMA on the verge of having no money, they left. They're gone. They're not in Washington.

WELNA: Dick Durbin, the Senate's number-two Democrat, said he'd spent the weekend in his home state of Illinois, where he said people are fed up with Congress.

INSKEEP: When they see us break down into another cussing match over shutting down the government, they say for goodness sakes, grow up.

WELNA: Durbin said the Senate had decided to act like grown-ups and deal with preventing a shutdown. And Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu said she was sorry this interrupted the Senate's plans to be out all week.

INSKEEP: I know it's inconvenient for members to have to come back this week. I know people wanted to be away this week to work in their districts. But this is an argument and a debate worth having.

WELNA: Perhaps, but once Republicans voted to block his version of the stopgap spending bill, Majority Leader Reid revealed that a bipartisan deal had been worked out.

REID: It's only worth fighting when there's something to fight for. We've basically resolved this issue, Mr. President.

WELNA: The deal was based on the revelation yesterday that FEMA would not need a billion dollars in disaster money after all, to keep relief efforts going this week. So that money was dropped from the bill. And in turn, the House Republicans' offset of a billion-and-a-half dollars worth of spending cuts was also dropped.

INSKEEP: In my view, this entire fire drill was completely and totally unnecessary.

WELNA: That was Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell's take on this latest shutdown saga. He also had withering words for FEMA and its earlier claims that disaster relief funds could be all used up as early as today.

MCCONNELL: Quite frankly, I think this is a vindication of what Republicans have been saying all along: Before we spend the taxpayers' money, we should have a real accounting, a real accounting, of what is actually needed.

WELNA: New York Democrat Charles Schumer said requiring such an offset would have set a bad precedent.

INSKEEP: Had we agreed to what the House wanted to do, the next time, say there victims of an earthquake, would people have said you have to cut education before we help the earthquake victims?

WELNA: The deal the Senate approved would keep the federal government funded through mid-November. But as majority leader Reid noted, the House still has to approve that deal.

REID: Now, I hope the House is going to come back from their little break here and complete this work as fast as they can. It's certainly something the country needs. I can't understand how they possibly could have any question about what they need to do now.

WELNA: David Welna, NPR News, the Capitol. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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David Welna is NPR's national security correspondent.