Happening Now: Senate Votes On $852 Billion Defense Spending Bill

The Senate will vote Thursday afternoon on a massive defense spending bill after Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) threw a curveball into the government funding fight earlier this week.

Thune is effectively daring Democrats to oppose the $852 billion bill as the GOP seeks to shift the narrative from health care to military spending. Republicans and Democrats are also sparring over who’s to blame for putting military pay in jeopardy amid the shutdown.

The full-year bill is the result of a bipartisan appropriations process and passed out of committee on a 26-3 vote earlier this year.

It’s unclear how Democrats will handle the vote, but they have remained largely united in opposition to a short-term bill to reopen the government, as they demand an extension of ObamaCare subsidies set to expire at the end of the year.

“It seems like it’s a hard vote,” Thune told The Hill on Wednesday of the defense bill. “Because they all say they want a normal appropriations process, and we’re trying to give them one. I get it, it’s in the middle of a shutdown, which is a complicating dynamic here.”

Watch a live stream of the Senate floor with voting set to begin around 1:30 p.m.