参议院周四未能推进参议员罗恩·约翰逊(Ron Johnson)的法案，该法案将在政府关闭期间向一些联邦工作人员提供工资。
这《关闭公平法案》“——由约翰逊提出——以55票对45票被否决。它需要60票才能晋级。
民主党参议员约翰·费特曼、乔恩·奥索夫和拉斐尔·沃诺克与所有共和党人一起投票推动该法案。所有其他民主党人都投了反对票，有效地阻止了它的前进。
虽然该法案不会结束关闭，但它将允许一些联邦雇员拿到工资。
约翰逊的法案将为受关闭影响的军队和联邦机构的“例外雇员”提供拨款。这包括由人事管理办公室确定的执行紧急工作的员工，或为这些员工提供支持的承包商。
民主党人不愿意投票，因为他们担心约翰逊的法案给了政府和行政管理和预算办公室主任罗斯·沃特太多的权力来决定哪些员工会得到报酬，哪些不会。
民主党参议员克里斯·范·霍伦(Chris Van Hollen)提出了一项替代约翰逊的法案，向所有联邦雇员支付工资。约翰逊阻止了这一提议，以及民主党人的另一个类似选择。民主党人试图一致通过这两项法案，因此约翰逊的反对足以阻止他们。
约翰逊指出，民主党人提出的建议“95%”相似。但他指出，民主党的提案是不同的，因为它只持续到本财政年度，包括休假员工和限制削减力量。
减少驻军问题对约翰逊来说是一个挑战，但他说他愿意就此进行谈判。
“我不认为我们应该限制首席执行官适当管理联邦政府的能力，有时还应该做出艰难的决定来减少劳动力，”约翰逊说。“这是我们可以谈论的事情。”
约翰逊说，他阻止这些法案的部分原因是他希望民主党人允许就他的立法进行辩论，以便实际上可以达成解决方案。约翰逊说，为联邦雇员寻求解决方案的最佳方式是开始就一项法案进行辩论，而不是像民主党人那样试图一致通过一项法案。
他说，联邦雇员需要这些。
约翰逊说:“确保他们拿到薪水，这样他们就不必挨家挨户地工作，这样他们就不必去食物银行，这样他们就不会处于这种压力之下——我真诚地请求，让我们想出如何做到这一点。”
该法案投票之际，联邦工作人员将错过周五的第一次全额工资。
该立法将民主党置于一个有趣的位置，因为共和党人试图将反对该法案的投票标记为反对支付联邦工作人员工资的投票。
范·霍伦对约翰逊的法案进行了抨击，称该法案“实质上是将政府关门武器化，以允许特朗普总统决定谁工作并获得报酬，谁不工作并没有报酬。”
“我们的信念是，任何联邦雇员、任何人都不应该为与他们无关的政府关门承担责任或受到惩罚。所以我们的观点是，我们希望确保每个人在一天结束时都能拿到钱。”
因此，当被问及为什么他不支持共和党人已经提出11次的清洁法案时，范·霍伦说，支付美国人和保护医疗保健都很重要。
“我们当然想开放政府。这是解决这个问题的最好方法。我们还需要解决其他一些大问题，”范·霍伦说。
预计周四不会就清洁短期融资法案进行投票。随着参议员周末离开城镇，关闭将拖到周一。
Senate fails to advance GOP bill that would have provided pay for some federal workers during shutdown
The Senate on Thursday failed to advance Sen. Ron Johnson's bill that would have provided pay to some federal workers during the shutdown.
The"Shutdown Fairness Act" -- put forward by Johnson -- failed by a vote of 55-45. It would have needed 60 votes to advance.
Democratic Sens. John Fetterman, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock voted with all Republicans to advance the bill. All other Democrats voted against it, effectively blocking it from advancing.
While the bill would not have ended the shutdown, it would allowsomefederal employees to get paid.
Johnson's bill would have provided appropriations to pay the troops and "excepted employees" of federal agencies being affected by the shutdown. That includes employees determined by the Office of Personnel Management to be performing emergency work, or for contractors who provide support to those employees.
Democrats were reluctant to provide votes out of concerns that Johnson's bill gives the administration and Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought too broad of authority to determine which employees would get paid and which wouldn't.
Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen offered an alternative bill to Johnson's that would pay all federal employees. Johnson blocked that proposal -- along with another similar option from Democrats. Democrats attempted to pass both of these bills unanimously, so Johnson's objection alone was enough to block them.
Johnson noted that the proposals Democrats offered are "95%" similar. But he noted that the Democrat proposal is different because it only lasts through this fiscal year, includes furloughed employees and limits reduction in force.
The reduction in force issue was a challenge for Johnson, but he said he was open to negotiation on it.
"I don't think we should limit the chief executive's ability to properly manage the federal government and make the tough decision sometimes to reduce the workforce," Johnson said. "That's something we can talk about."
Johnson said he blocked the bills in part because he wants Democrats to allow for debate on his legislation so a solution can actually be reached. The best way to work toward a solution for federal employees, Johnson said, was to begin debate on a bill rather than trying to pass one unanimously as Democrats did.
Federal employees, he said, need that.
"To see that they get their paycheck, so they don't have to work Door Dash, so they don't have to go to food banks, so they're not under that stress -- I am asking in good faith, let's figure out how to get that done," Johnson said.
The vote on the bill came as federal workers will miss their first full paycheck on Friday.
The legislation put Democrats in an interesting spot, as Republicans work to brand votes against this bill as votes against paying federal workers.
Van Hollen attacked Johnson's bill, saying it would "essentially weaponize the government shutdown to allow President Trump to decide who works and gets paid and who doesn't work and doesn't get paid."
"Our belief is that no federal employee, no one should bear the burden or be punished for a shutdown they have nothing to do with. So our view is that we want to make sure everybody gets paid at the end of the day."
When pressed on why he would not, therefore, support the clean bill Republican’s have put forward 11 times, Van Hollen said it’s important to both pay Americans and protect health care.
"Of course we want to open the government. That's the best way to address this issue. We also need to address these other big issues," Van Hollen said.
No vote is expected for Thursday on the clean short-term funding bill. With senators leaving town for the weekend, the shutdown will drag on to Monday.
