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CHARLESTON -- A new two-year budget deal is now on its way to President Donald Trump after the U.S. Senate voted to approve the package Thursday, though West Virginia's delegation was on opposite sides of the vote.
The U.S. Senate voted 67-28 on a budget deal that sets discretionary spending at $1.37 trillion, suspends the debt ceiling until 2021, and raises spending caps to $324 billion of the next two years. The U.S. House of Representatives voted for the budget deal last week.
U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., voted in favor of the budget deal. Wednesday night, Capito told The Hill newspaper she was optimistic the senate Republican would vote for the bill.
"I'm glad that President Trump and the administration were able to negotiate a budget agreement with House leadership that allows us to now move forward with the appropriations process," Capito said in a statement Thursday after the vote.
"One of our most important jobs as members of Congress is delivering the resources to fund our government, provide certainty and support for our military and our veterans, and ensure economic stability for American families," Capito continued. "This agreement puts us on the path to accomplish all of those goals."
The total cost of the budget deal is $2.7 trillion is expected to add $1.7 trillion to the national debt, which already sits at $22 trillion. This increase in the national debt did not sit well with U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and a bipartisan group of senators who also were former governors.
Of the 96 senators who voted on the bill, 23 Republicans and five Democrats voted against the budget proposal.
These included Manchin and senators Mitt Romney, R-Utah; Tom Carper, D-Del.; and Rick Scott, R-Fla.
"As former governors, we were responsible for setting a budget each year that was fiscally responsible to fund our priorities," Manchin said in a statement. "That's why today, we, as U.S. Senators, cannot bring ourselves to vote for this budget deal that does not put our country on a fiscally sustainable path."
The vote, originally scheduled for Wednesday, was postponed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel, R-Ky., according to Politico due to some members of the Republican caucus having issues with a bill increasing the national debt. Manchin said the federal government could learn from state governments in how to balance budgets.
"We cannot continue to ignore the fact that our country's $22 trillion national debt is dangerous and unsustainable," Manchin said. "We did not run our states this way, and it's why, now as U.S. Senators, we feel strongly that we must lead by example and say that this is not the way to run our country either."