McConnell moves ahead with bipartisan stopgap spending bill

WASHINGTON -- The Senate's top Republican moved swiftly to avoid a government shutdown in six days, pushing legislation that would keep agencies operating without a contentious fight over money for Planned Parenthood.

The action of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., followed a decisive Senate vote blocking a bill that would have stripped Planned Parenthood of its taxpayer funding while keeping the government running through Dec. 11.

The vote was 47-52, falling short of a majority and well shy of the 60 votes required to overcome a filibuster led by Democrats. Eight Republicans, several of whom support abortion rights, voted with 42 Democrats and two independents to kill the measure.

McConnell immediately offered a bipartisan stopgap spending bill free of the Planned Parenthood dispute that's expected to clear the Senate next week by a wide bipartisan margin. He has for almost a year promised Republicans controlling Congress won't repeat the government shutdown of two years ago.

In the House, GOP leaders called a meeting of their fractious rank and file for this morning to discuss whether to accept the Senate's move or reject it at the risk continuing the fight over Planned Parenthood would lead to a government shutdown.

The White House signaled President Barack Obama would sign the measure, called a continuing resolution, into law -- if the House steps aside from the fight tea-party Republicans want over "defunding" Planned Parenthood.

"I think we all know we're going to have a clean CR," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, using congressional code. "The House is going to figure out what the House is going to do, but we can't shut down the government."

Speaking at the White House, Obama reminded Congress of the need to keep the government open.

Honoring public-health workers for their efforts to combat Ebola, the president said such organizations "need support from Congress in order continue to excel in their mission, so I hope that Congress chooses to keep our government open and operating so that heroes like this can keep working."