The Alabama Legislature’s Republican leaders are pushing the U.S. Senate to avert a potentially “devastating” government shutdown, set to start Wednesday. In a letter to Senate Republican and Democratic leadership, exclusively obtained by Alabama Daily News, GOP state lawmakers on Sept. 26 urgently called for the U.S. Senate to pass the GOP-led seven-week stopgap funding bill that keeps spending levels flat. Signees include Speaker of the House Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, Senate President Pro Tem Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, and Sens. Kay Ivey also joined other Republican governors in a letter to the Senate urging them to immediately pass the short-term continuing resolution. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said there are “very large differences” between the two sides on health care and rescissions after the White House meeting.