Efforts are underway in the US Senate to block a pro-Israel bill in response to the ongoing government shutdown.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and other Senate Democratic leaders are behind the effort, according to a report by the Washington Examiner on Monday.
The bill is aimed at “allowing state and local governments to divest from entities that boycott, divest from, or sanction Israel because of its occupation of the West Bank.”
The bill is sponsored by Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a longtime opponent of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement and ally of AIPAC, the powerful pro-Israel lobby. Aside from Rubio, the bill is expected to receive the bipartisan support necessary to muster a Senate majority. A similar bill introduced by Rubio last year was cosponsored by several Democrats, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) was expected to support this latest effort, the Intercept reported.
Schumer and most Senate Dems support the bill, but the aide said the party won’t do business as usual until Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) stops caving to Trump’s demand for a taxpayer-funded border wall and instead introduces a House-approved spending package that could end the partial shutdown, which entered its 17th day on Monday.
A senior Senate Democratic aide said Monday that Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) would join the opposition to taking up the foreign policy legislation, known as S.1, before the Senate votes on the House-passed spending bills.
“Senate Republicans should instead bring to the floor the House-passed bills to reopen the government,” the aide said Monday.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), an author of the anti-boycott bill, argued that the shutdown is not really the reason Democrats are coming out against the foreign policy package.
“A huge argument broke out at Senate Dem meeting last week over BDS. A significant # of Senate Democrats now support #BDS & Dem leaders want to avoid a floor vote that reveals that,” Rubio tweeted Monday.
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Some democrats pledging to paralyze the Senate as a shutdown negotiation tactic.
So the answer to a government shutdown is to shutdown more of the government? washingtonpost.com/politics/democ…
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