Senators appeared no closer on Friday to a resolution that could end the longest government shutdown in history, as lawmakers were prepared to remain in Washington for a rare weekend session.
Tensions flared between the parties as the otherwise mild-mannered Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) traded barbs with Democrats. Republicans slammed a counteroffer from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to address expiring Obamacare subsidies as dead on arrival and an unserious attempt to end the shutdown stalemate.
And after combative floor debates throughout the afternoon, Democrats blocked the advancement of a GOP bill to pay federal workers and military personnel during government shutdowns.
Schumer’s latest proposal was to pair a one-year extension of the enhanced benefits with stopgap funding to end the shutdown and a trio of bipartisan appropriations bills that would fund portions of the government for a full year. He also proposed the creation of a bipartisan committee to explore long-term fixes to healthcare costs.
“Democrats are offering a very simple compromise,” Schumer said. “Since what we are proposing is only a simple extension of current law, the Senate could do this within a few hours.”
Republicans stuck by their insistence that Democrats must first help clear a 60-vote filibuster and reopen the government before Obamacare negotiations can start. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has previously criticized a one-year extension as insufficient, though on Friday released a statement praising Schumer’s proposal as “very reasonable.”
Republicans fumed at Schumer after leaving a closed-door meeting and accused their Democratic colleagues of unraveling any progress made in days of bipartisan talks aimed at finding a solution. GOP senators emerged with handouts charting the spike in health insurance companies’ stock values in the past decade since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, using the figures to reiterate their resistance to extending subsidies in their current form for what they say is a deeply flawed program that lines the pockets of corporations.
“It’s a non-starter. It’s nothing new,” said Sen. John Curtis (R-UT), a more centrist member of his party known for bipartisanship. “You don’t use hostages to get your legislative agenda, so let’s open the government and let’s have a reasonable debate.”
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) compared Democrats to “a bunch of kamikaze pilots” and urged the Trump administration to redistribute federal funds from “every state by every Democrat who continues to shut the government down, find all the pet projects, find all the priorities, and take them away” to pay federal workers such as air traffic controllers and immigration enforcement agents.
There was evidence elsewhere that the stalemate was likely to persist.
Thune reversed course from initial plans to hold another vote on a House-passed “clean” stopgap funding measure that’s failed 14 previous times, after Democrats, seizing on a sense of renewed leverage following election victories earlier this week, were prepared to block it. Instead, the upper chamber voted Friday on a stand-alone measure to pay federal workers, including those furloughed, and military troops during the shutdown. It failed along mostly party lines, with Democrats preventing it from reaching the 60-vote threshold needed to advance.
“The pep rally they had at lunch yesterday, evidently, changed some minds,” Thune said. “I thought we were on track. They were trending in that direction. And then yesterday, everything kind of — the wheels came off.”
At one point on Friday, a tense exchange ensued on the Senate floor between Thune and Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) after Peters blocked an attempt by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) to pass his bill to pay federal workers via unanimous consent. Peters said it afforded “too much discretion” to President Donald Trump and “too much wiggle room for the administration to choose which federal employees are paid and when.”
“It’s about leverage, isn’t it?” Thune said to Peters. “Isn’t that what y’all have been saying? It’s about leverage? This isn’t leverage. This is the lives of the American people.”
The American Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents federal workers, sided with Republicans and urged senators in a letter to pass Johnson’s shutdown pay legislation.
A vote to advance the measure, which required 60 votes, failed Friday evening 53-43. Three Democrats crossed the aisle to vote with all Republicans in favor: Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Jon Ossoff (D-GA), and Raphael Warnock (D-GA).
GOP TO HOLD RARE WEEKEND SENATE SESSION AS DEMOCRATS SPLIT ON SHUTDOWN DEAL
The Senate will remain in town over the weekend to allow rank-and-file members to continue bipartisan backchannels in search of an off-ramp from the shutdown. Trump also urged senators to stay in town until a deal was reached.
“The United States Senate should not leave town until they have a Deal to end the Democrat Shutdown,” Trump posted to Truth Social. “If they can’t reach a Deal, the Republicans should terminate the Filibuster, IMMEDIATELY, and take care of our Great American Workers!”
