New week, same old shutdown stalemate.
The Senate on Monday evening failed for an eleventh time to advance a Republican bill to fund the government and reopen federal agencies that have now been shut down for 20 days. The House, meanwhile, has been out for more than a month. Its last vote was on September 19.
“Republicans seem happy not to work, happy not to negotiate, happy to let health care premiums spike for over 20 million working and middle-class Americans," Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor, slamming the House for its long absence.
‘No Kings’ and no deal: As the standoff stretches toward a fourth week, there’s little sign of a resolution — though some Republicans floated the idea that Democrats might be more willing to end the shutdown now that Saturday’s “No Kings” protests are in the rearview mirror.
“Now that Democrats have had their protests and publicity stunts, I just pray that they come to their senses and end this shutdown and reopen the government this week,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said at a morning news conference, the latest in a long series of dueling events at which the two parties try to win the messaging battle.
White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett floated the same idea in an appearance on CNBC Monday morning: “A lot of our friends in the Senate have said that it was just bad optics for Democrats to open the government before the ‘No Kings’ rally and that now there’s a shot that this week things will come together, and very quickly, the moderate Democrats will move forward and get us an open government, at which point we could negotiate whatever policies they want to negotiate with regular order.”
Hassett also dangled a stick in front of Democrats, threatening new measures to try to force them “to the table” — though it’s been Democrats who have been calling for negotiations.
“I think the Schumer shutdown is likely to end sometime this week,” Hassett said, using the phrase Republicans have adopted to blame Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for the impasse. If it doesn’t, Hassett added, “I think that the White House is going to have to look very closely, along with [White House budget chief Russell] Vought, at stronger measures that we could take to bring them to the table,” he said.
Dems urge Trump to step in: Democrats have given little indication that they’re ready to back off their demands for negotiations to extend expiring healthcare subsidies. Some reportedly acknowledge in private that they are worried they’ll “get hammered” by their base if they vote to pass the Republican stopgap bill to fund the government through November 21.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Monday told reporters that President Donald Trump, who has not been very engaged in the fight, “definitively needs to get involved" in negotiations to end the shutdown. “He needs to get off the sidelines, get off the golf course, and actually decide to end this shutdown that he’s created,” Jeffries said.
But in speaking with CNBC, Hassett indicated that wasn’t likely any time soon. The presidential advisor said that the White House is in discussions with the Senate, but that Trump is looking to congressional leaders to come to a resolution. “The president believes that the Senate needs to work this out,” Hassett said.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune last week offered Democrats to hold a vote on extending the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies if they agree to end the shutdown.
“I am willing to sit down with Democrats to discuss the growing unaffordability and unsustainability of Obamacare,” Thune wrote in a Friday post on X. “It’s a system they created, but I’m happy to hear them out. Heck, I’m even willing to give them a vote. Today. Tomorrow. Next week. You name it. But there’s one condition: End the Schumer Shutdown. I will not negotiate under hostage conditions, nor will I pay a ransom. Period.”
Democrats rejected that offer, insisting that a vote was essentially meaningless without a broader deal since the extension of subsidies would not be guaranteed to pass.
"You have to give the Democrats credit for one thing — and that's a healthy dose of gall,” Thune said Monday. “It is truly amazing how a program Democrats created and tax credits that they chose to sunset have now become the Republicans' crisis.”
What’s next: Thune is expected to keep forcing votes on the GOP funding bill, and he is set to also bring up legislation this week to pay federal employees and military service members who have been required to work during the shutdown. Democratic votes would be needed to pass that measure, and it’s not clear yet whether more Democrats will back it. Democrats last week blocked a bipartisan annual defense spending bill from advancing, insisting that resolving the shutdown should be lawmakers’ priority.
Johnson said he would call House members back if the Senate approves the bill to pay federal workers and service members, but he suggested that outcome is unlikely.