Senate Republicans Block House-Passed Stopgap Bill to Avert Shutdown, Lift Debt Ceiling

The U.S. government was headed toward a partial shutdown after Senate Republicans blocked a stopgap bill that would have temporarily funded the government and raised the debt ceiling on Monday.

The bill, which passed in the House last week, did not move forward in the Senate after failing to receive the required 60 votes. Congress was left with only days to avert a shutdown, with current funding set to expire at midnight on Thursday. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell insisted that the GOP was not in favor of a shutdown but opposed to raising the debt limit and would support a funding bill without the provision.

"Let me make it abundantly clear one more time: We will support a clean continuing resolution that will prevent a government shutdown," McConnell said on Monday, according to CNN. "We will not provide Republican votes for raising the debt limit."

Prior the bill being blocked, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that Republicans were taking an "unhinged position" and warned that blocking the debt limit increase and allowing the U.S. to default on debts would "send markets crashing and interest rates skyrocketing."

A recent analysis from the Bipartisan Policy Center found that the Treasury Department is likely to run out of funds to pay the government's bills between October 15 and November 4 if the debt limit is not raised. Schumer argued that Republicans were running the risk of doing serious damage to the economy and the livelihoods of Americans to "score meaningless political points" in the short term.

"There is no scenario on God's green Earth where it should be worth risking millions of jobs, trillions in household wealth, people's social security checks, veterans benefits, and another recession, just to score short-term meaningless political points," Schumer said from the Senate floor. "That's what Republicans seem fixated on doing."

Democrats will likely to reconsider their resolution and attempt to pass it again before Thursday. McConnell proposed an alternative version of the bill without a debt ceiling provision before Monday's vote. He said that a "clean" version of the bill from himself and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) could quickly pass in the Senate "if the Democratic leader lets us."

"Our bill tracks with bipartisan talks," said McConnell. "It would keep the government open, fund disaster relief for Louisiana and fund defensive assistance for our ally Israel and their Iron Dome. And it drops the debt limit language that Democrats have known is a non-starter for more than two months."

Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment.