Fetterman breaks with Democrats to support stopgap spending bill

For the second time in less than 24 hours, the U.S. Senate blocked a stopgap spending bill that would fund the government through late November.

The proposal needed support from 60 senators to end a filibuster and advance to a final vote, but it fell short Wednesday with just 55 votes in favor — the same number as it received the day before.

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Braddock, was one of just three members of the Democratic caucus to vote in favor of the bill. The others were U.S. Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat from Nevada, and Angus King, an independent from Maine who caucuses with the Democrats.

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, was the lone Republican to vote against the measure.

“My vote was for our country over my party,” Fetterman said in a statement. “Together, we must find a better way forward.”

Fetterman did vote along party lines in supporting a separate Democratic proposal that would fund the government through October while also extending Affordable Care Act tax credits that are set to expire at the end of the year. It failed on a 53-47 vote.

Fetterman’s votes came as no surprise.

In an appearance last month on Fox News, Fetterman said, “I absolutely, fully support extending the tax credits for the ACA, but I refuse absolutely to vote for anything that’s (going) to shut our government down.”

“That’s our core responsibility to have a functioning government open and, in the middle of all this chaos, the last thing we need is to shut the government down,” he said.

U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, a Republican from Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill, voted in favor of the stopgap spending bill that would fund the government through late November, but opposed the measure that included extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits.