WASHINGTON -- The Senate headed to a vote averting a government shutdown at midnight Friday as coal-state Democrats beat a tactical retreat and promised to continue their fight next year for months-long health care benefits for retired miners.
"We had no intention of shutting down the government," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., adding that Democrats would provide enough votes to pass a stopgap spending bill to keep the government operating through April 28 and extend through that month health care benefits for retired miners who were set to lose them at the end of the year.
But Democrats wanted those benefits to last for a year and slowed down voting on the measure with the threat of rejecting the bill.
The extended fight over the miners' benefits was intended to "highlight the seriousness of this issue," Schumer said.
The underlying funding bill, passed by the House on Thursday, would buy time for Donald Trump's incoming administration and Congress to wrap up more than $1 trillion in unfinished agency budget work. It also provides war funding, disaster aid for Louisiana and other states, and an expedited process for considering Trump's nominee for defense secretary, retired Gen. James Mattis.
Late Friday afternoon, Republicans and Democrats agreed to extend the miners' benefits for a few months and take up the matter again in January.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., led the battle of coal-state Democrats who demanded a one-year extension for the miners rather than the shorter, four-month fix in the spending bill.
Faced with Republicans unwilling to agree to the robust coverage and the departure of House lawmakers, the Democrats relented.
Manchin acknowledged Friday night that he probably did not have the votes to block the bill, but said "the fight will continue" next year.
"I'm born into a family of coal miners. If I'm not going to stand up for them, who is?" he asked reporters.
Earlier, he said senators from both parties had campaigned on giving a "fair shake" to working people.
"It's either put up or shut up," Manchin said. "You've asked them to vote for you because of this reason. Now you have a chance to show them that's why you're here."
Speaking on the Senate floor late Friday, Manchin stressed the importance of coal as an energy source. "What 12 hours of the day do you not want electricity? ... Heat?" he asked. He was joined by other Democrats from coal states Trump won, including Pennsylvania and Ohio.
At least one Republican -- Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. -- had stood with Manchin.
Absent a deal, there would be a post-midnight vote to advance the spending bill over a filibuster barrier, with passage of the measure at some point this weekend.
Though a lapse in government funding was possible, White House spokesman Eric Schultz said a shutdown wouldn't begin immediately in any event, especially if the White House budget office was sure that the temporary funding measure would pass later today.
On Friday morning, the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., urged his Democratic colleagues to approve the spending bill, warning that without it, the miners would lose their health care at the end of the month.
"This is a good time to take yes for an answer," McConnell said, adding that the four-month extension was better than nothing. He pledged to work to prevent the expiration of the miners' health care coverage next year and blamed Senate Democrats for contributing to the coal industry's plight in the first place.
McConnell represents thousands of miners in the struggling coal industry and said he tried to get a longer solution in talks with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
"Would I have preferred that provision to be more generous? Of course I would have," McConnell said in a speech on the Senate floor.
Pressure on Trump
Manchin called the proposal to temporarily extend health care benefits for about 16,500 retired union coal miners "horrendous" and "inhumane" and accused Republicans of turning their backs on people who built the country and made it great.
Manchin furiously worked the phones Friday morning to see how many senators would join him in voting against a procedural measure to advance the short-term spending bill. But he found that many senators, like colleagues in the House, wanted to avoid a shutdown.
Schumer, the incoming Democratic leader, stood with Manchin on Thursday night to call for the miner provisions.
"We're going to win this fight," Schumer said this week. "We can't predict the exact path, but we are going to win this fight, because we're right."
Coal-state Democrats have pressed Trump, a self-proclaimed coal champion, to intervene with Republicans. Manchin, mentioned as possible candidate for energy secretary or secretary of state in the new administration, will meet with Trump on Monday and said he expects to raise the coal miners' issue.
Trump won West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania and other states in Appalachia and the Midwest with heavy support from working-class voters in coal and steel communities. Democrats are waging a high-stakes fight a month after an abysmal showing with those voters, who helped the GOP secure a monopoly in Washington next year.
"Who's for the working people? Where's Donald Trump on miners?" asked Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who faces re-election in 2018.
"The time is now for Donald Trump to take a stand in support of American workers," said Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.
Seventy years ago, President Harry S. Truman guaranteed a lifetime of health and pension benefits for retired miners to avert a strike.
The coal industry has been decimated in recent years with a string of bankruptcies. Lawmakers from coal-producing states, as well as the United Mine Workers of America, have been pushing for legislation that would protect the health care and pensions of retirees. But many Republicans have balked at the costs.
The House closed up Thursday for a three-week vacation, creating a dynamic in which the Senate had little choice but to adopt the stopgap measure. Both the funding measure and a water projects bill passed by sweeping bipartisan votes in the House.
"Working all night and into the weekend won't change the inevitable outcome," said No. 2 Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas.
Democrats say that a short-term extension of miners' health care benefits would leave them in limbo.
"I've tweeted President-elect [Donald] Trump," Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said Thursday, adding that the dispute over the miners' health care was an early test for Trump.
"In those communities they live in, Trump often got 70 percent of the vote," Brown said. "I would think he'd want to help them, but so far he hasn't." Emails to the Trump transition team were not returned.
Trump has not spoken publicly about the Senate dispute, but he voiced frequent praise for coal miners during his campaign.
"You watch what happens: If I win, we're going to bring those miners back," he said at a rally in West Virginia, where he donned a hard hat.
In addition to the fight over the miners, Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., were speaking out on another matter that seemed right out of Trump's playbook, pushing to write into law a permanent requirement that U.S.-made steel and iron be used in water projects. Such a requirement had been removed from a water projects bill that the House approved Thursday, and Democrats were insisting that it be put back into the legislation.
A vote to overcome a filibuster of that measure, which also would clear the way for long-delayed funding of $170 million to help Flint, Mich., to fix its lead-tainted water system, was to follow action on the stopgap spending bill.
Information for this article was contributed by Jennifer Steinhauer and Thomas Kaplan of The New York Times and by Andrew Taylor and Matthew Daly of The Associated Press.
A Section on 12/10/2016