The Senate took its first step toward averting a government shutdown, but there’s still a long way to go on an increasingly shorter path to keep the lights on in Washington, D.C.Lawmakers advanced a $174 billion, three-bill package through its first procedural hurdle on Monday evening with an 81-14 vote, teeing up a vote to send the tranche of funding bills, known as a minibus, to President Donald Trump’s desk later this week.The package, which easily sailed through the House last week, similarly cruised through the key test vote on a wave of bipartisan support — a sign that neither party wants to thrust the government into another shutdown just months after the longest closure in history.HOUSE PASSES NEARLY $180B FUNDING PACKAGE AFTER CONSERVATIVE REBELLION OVER MINNESOTA FRAUD FEARSSenate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., noted that Senate Democrats weren’t looking for another shutdown last week and said that “Democrats want to fund the appropriations, the spending bills, all the way through 2026.””We want to work in a bicameral, bipartisan way to do it and the good news is our Republican appropriators are working with us,” Schumer told ABC Sunday morning.While the successful procedural vote acted as a good sign for final passage of the package, it doesn’t mean that lawmakers are completely out of the woods when it comes to preventing another shutdown.They have until Jan. 30 to fund the rest of the government, and some in the Senate believe that they won’t have time to finish their work before…
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