On Day 23 of the government shutdown, the Senate rejected competing Republican and Democratic bills to pay military servicemembers and some federal workers. With many federal workers set to miss their first full paycheck tomorrow and programs providing food and heating assistance on the verge of running out of money, senators headed home for the weekend following Thursday’s session, ending another week with no progress toward re-opening the government.
The shutdown is now the second longest on record and is set to continue into next week and potentially beyond. Lawmakers in both parties are sticking to their positions, and President Donald Trump has backed GOP lawmakers’ insistence that the government must reopen before any negotiations on Democrats’ demand to extend expiring healthcare subsidies.
“Trump is the off-ramp,” Wisconsin’s Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin told Punchbowl News. “If he says to his Republican leaders in Congress, ‘Fix this,’ it’ll happen.”
But Trump is heading to Asia on Friday night and is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping next Thursday, leaving little hope that he will get more engaged on the shutdown in the coming days.
Dueling bills defeated: On the Senate floor Thursday, a Republican plan to pay federal employees who must work through the shutdown, along with active-duty military and contractors, fell short of the 60 votes it needed to pass. The 54-45 vote saw three Democrats, Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman and Georgia’s Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, join with Republicans in support of the bill, which was brought by Republican Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.
“The Democrats continue to play political games. They are desperately afraid of their far-left base, and that's why we're in the #SchumerShutdown,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in a post on X.
Democrats said the legislation failed to help furloughed workers and would give the administration too much power to decide which employees get paid and which continue to be furloughed without pay.
Two senators in the Democratic caucus who have been voting in favor of a GOP stopgap funding bill — Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Angus King of Maine — all opposed the measure. Thune changed his vote to “No” to allow for another vote on the legislation.
Republicans also objected to a voice vote on Democratic legislation introduced by Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen that would pay all federal employees, both those required to work through the shutdown and those who have been furloughed, as well as servicemembers and contractors. The bill would have also prevented the Trump administration from carrying out “reductions in force” of federal workers during the funding lapse.
“No federal worker or servicemember should be punished for this shutdown that was brought on through no fault of their own,” Van Hollen said in a statement. “Republicans are hell-bent on letting Trump pick winners and losers here, but every federal worker, servicemember, and federal contractor deserves to get paid.”
Another bill, introduced by Democratic Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, would have provided a one-time appropriation to cover pay for servicemembers, federal employees and contractors who have missed any compensation from October 1 to the date the bill is enacted. It was also blocked.
What’s next: Republicans are shifting tactics a bit and could force votes next week on shutdown pay for the military, air traffic controllers and TSA employees as well as food assistance. Those measures may not get the votes needed to pass, but they could add to the pressure on Democrats.
The bottom line: The pain of the shutdown is growing, but neither side is budging ahead of a potentially crucial date on November 1, when open enrollment starts for Affordable Care Act plans.