Senate Republican and Democratic leaders say they need to resolve an objection from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) about a provision in the government funding deal before they can accelerate consideration of the bill to end the 41-day shutdown.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters Monday morning that there is only one “objector” to speeding up Senate consideration of the government funding package, referring to Paul, who wants to strip a provision from the package that would prevent the unregulated sale of intoxicating hemp-based products.
Paul said he’s doing his just doing his job by standing up for Kentucky’s hemp industry. He argued that he’s fully entitled under the Senate rules to use all the procedural time at his disposal to scrutinize the government funding package — which he opposes.
“Just to be clear: I am not delaying this bill. The timing is already fixed under Senate procedure. But there is extraneous language in this package that has nothing to do with reopening the government and would harm Kentucky’s hemp farmers and small businesses,” Paul said in a statement posted on X, the social media platform.
“Standing up for Kentucky jobs is part of my job,” he wrote.
Paul wants to strip out language from the bill funding the Department of Agriculture that would ban the unregulated sale of intoxicating hemp-based or hemp-derived products, such as Delta-8, from being sold online or at gas stations and corner stores. The deal the Senate advanced on Sunday includes full-year funding bills for military construction, veterans’ affairs, the Department of Agriculture and the legislative branch.
A spokesperson for Paul said the Kentucky senator wants to reopen the government right away, but he has a major problem with provisions in the bill that “unfairly target Kentucky’s hemp industry.”
“Dr. Rand Paul affirms his commitment to reopening the government without delay. However, he objects to the inclusion of provisions in the government-funding package that unfairly target Kentucky’s hemp industry,” the aide said.
Paul’s spokesperson said the language is “unrelated to the budget and the government-reopening goal.”
The Senate voted Sunday night to end debate on a motion to proceed to a House-passed continuing resolution to fund the government, taking a major first step toward passage of a funding bill.
Senate rules require 30 hours of “post-cloture” time to elapse on the chamber floor before senators can vote to proceed to the legislative vehicle.
Then senators still need to hold four more votes to pass the bill to reopen government and send it to the House.
They need to vote on ending debate on the substitute amendment, on adopting the substitute — which is the bipartisan deal negotiators unveiled on Sunday — and then they need to vote on ending debate on the underlying legislative vehicle before voting on final passage of the whole package.
It requires consent from all 100 senators to speed up the timeline for passing the bill, which would otherwise take days under the Senate’s procedural rules.
Thune told reporters Monday morning that Paul is the only senator who isn’t yielding back time to get the bill over to the House more quickly.
“I don’t think it’s anyone’s best interest to drag this out,” Thune told reporters.
He confirmed that Paul has an objection to a “provision in the Ag appropriations bill.”
A Senate GOP aide said the Senate could vote immediately on proceeding to the underlying legislative vehicle if Paul lifts his objection.
Paul said he’s seeking a vote on an amendment to strip the hemp provision from the bill, an amendment he has already filed.
The aide acknowledged that the Senate rules technically call for a full 30 hours of debate to elapse on the floor after senators vote to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to a bill.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), a key negotiator on deal to reopen government, said Monday night there aren’t any Democratic objections on moving swiftly to approve government funding deal.
“I don’t know of anybody on the Dem side who’s going to slow it down between votes,” he said.
