Scoop: Senate Republicans eye piecemeal government reopening

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is considering bringing full-year appropriations bills — such as one to fund the Pentagon and pay the military — to the floor for a vote, he told Axios on Wednesday.Why it matters: Bipartisan talks to reopen the government via a short-term spending stopgap bill are frozen. Now, Thune is at least contemplating other options.Bringing standalone appropriations bills to the floor would be a long and tortuous way to reopen the government, department by department.To pass a bundle of multiple appropriations bills — like the one that passed the Senate earlier this year — would require unanimous consent.But Thune could bring a single appropriation bill to the floor if it has already been passed by the House, like the Defense package.What he's saying: "We're prepared to do that," Thune told Axios when asked at what point he would consider bringing committee-passed appropriations bills to the floor.He added, "that takes consent. We got to find out if the Dems are going to let us do anything while the government is shut down.""But yeah, I'm ready to call up the Defense approps bill," he said.Zoom in: The strategy has the backing of Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine), who thinks finished appropriations bills "should immediately be brought to the floor.""The top priority of everyone is getting the government reopened," Collins told Axios."If we are stymied, I think we should be proceeding with appropriations laws."Collins called for the Senate to designate members for a formal conference for the trio of bills that passed the Senate earlier this year. A conference is how the House and Senate hash out differences between bills.The other side: "There's nothing holding him back from doing that," Senate Appropriations Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said of Thune potentially bringing the Defense bill to the floor."That does not change where we are right now in the CR," she added. "We still have to negotiate with the House. The President has to sign it, so it's a long way from anywhere.""I prefer that the Republican leader talks to the Democratic leader, and they come up with a decision on how we're going to move forward on all of this."Between the lines: For the troops wondering if they will get paid, there's almost no way a full defense appropriations bill could pass both chambers by Oct. 15. They would likely miss a paycheck.The vote would force Democrats to make a difficult decision: Pass a standalone bill to ensure that troops get paid, or preserve their full shutdown leverage.But GOP leaders would risk losing their political leverage, too.The intrigue: Thune's apparent openness to a standalone Defense appropriations bill is a slight departure from steady Republican insistence — including from Thune — that the best way to guarantee troops are paid is for Democrats to pass the short-term spending bill that has already cleared the House.Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has refused to call back his members to vote on a smaller bill that would just deal with military pay.Senate action on appropriation bills would also heap more pressure on Johnson to bring the House back to work.

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