Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Friday offered a Democratic proposal to end the government shutdown now in its record 38th day. Senate Majority Leader John Thune quickly dismissed the offer as a “non-starter,” but left the door open to having the Senate work through the weekend for the first time since the shutdown started. Disruptions resulting from the standoff continue to pile up across the economy, building pressure for lawmakers to end the impasse.
President Donald Trump, engaging belatedly in the shutdown fight, added to the pressure, especially on Republicans. “The United States Senate should not leave town until they have a Deal to end the Democrat Shutdown,” he wrote in an afternoon post on his social media site. “If they can’t reach a Deal, the Republicans should terminate the Filibuster, IMMEDIATELY, and take care of our Great American Workers!”
Trump’s post came shortly after Schumer floated what he called a simple compromise: Lawmakers would reopen the government, pass a package of three bipartisan full-year spending bills and simultaneously extend for one year the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies at the heart of the standoff. The two sides could then create a bipartisan committee to negotiate longer-term reforms to lower healthcare costs.
That approach, Schumer said, has support across the Democratic caucus and would honor Republicans’ insistence that any negotiations on the healthcare issue happen only after the shutdown ends. A month ago, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries had rejected the idea of just a one-year extension of the ACA tax credits, calling it a “non-starter” and insisting that the subsidies should be made permanent. Schumer on Friday pitched it as a sensible way to resolve the shutdown mess.
“This proposal reopens the government and ensures working families who are shopping right now for their healthcare get certainty and financial relief,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “This is a reasonable offer that reopens the government, deals with healthcare affordability and begins a process of negotiating reforms to the ACA tax credits for the future. Now, the ball is in the Republicans’ court. We need Republicans to just say yes.”
Republicans were quick to say no. Thune told reporters that the offer was a sign that Democrats are “feeling the heat” and could be characterized as progress compared to an “unserious and unrealistic” prior proposal. “But I just don't think that it gets anywhere close to what we need to do here,” he said.
Many Republicans oppose any straight extension of the healthcare tax credits, insisting that the Affordable Care Act and its subsidies need to be reformed. Thune said that Schumer’s proposed one-year extension of Obamacare subsidies should be the subject of bipartisan talks.
“The Obamacare extension is the negotiation. That's what we're going to negotiate once the government opens up,” he said. “We need to vote to open the government — and there is a proposal out there to do that — and then we can have this whole conversation about health care.”
Election results emboldened Democrats: Entering the week, Republican leaders on Capitol Hill reportedly expected to be able to peel off enough centrist Democratic votes to approve a bipartisan deal to reopen the government, pass a package of annual appropriations and set up a vote on extending the ACA subsidies, with no promise that would pass.
The Democratic sweep in Tuesday’s key elections changed the dynamics of the shutdown fight, stiffening the resolve of many in the party to keep fighting.
Democrats block GOP bill to pay federal workers: As they dig in to try to secure some GOP concessions, Democrats on Friday twice blocked a bill from Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson to require federal workers to be paid during the shutdown.
Johnson’s bill had initially been blocked two weeks ago, as many Democrats complained that it excluded furloughed workers and gave the Trump administration too much leeway to decide which workers get paid.
Johnson modified the legislation — “quite dramatically,” he said — to address some of those concerns, and have the bill pay both essential workers and those who have been furloughed as well as military members. But Democratic Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, who has negotiated with Johnson on the measure, said the changes hadn’t yet gone far enough.
“There’s too much wiggle room for the administration to basically pick and choose which federal employees are paid and when,” he said. “I’m also deeply concerned that this would allow the administration to actually transfer this money to other purposes that aren’t intended by Congress, which unfortunately we have seen happen repeatedly in this administration.”
The House will be out again next week: House Republican leaders decided that November 10 to 16 will be another “district work period” for members, meaning that no votes will be held for an eighth straight week. The House last voted on September 19 — 49 days ago.
Rep.-Elect Adelita Grijalva, the Arizona Democrat who won a special election on September 23, has still not been sworn in, as House Speaker Mike Johnson refuses to allow her to be seated.
Johnson has also refused to promise a House vote on an extension of the ACA subsidies. “I’m not promising anybody anything,” the speaker said Thursday, clouding the prospects of any Senate deal.
What’s next: Delays and cancellations are growing worse at the nation’s airports and millions of families face some uncertainty about their delayed monthly food benefits (see below). More than 1,000 U.S. flights were canceled today, and more than 4,700 were delayed, according to FlightAware. And steeper flight cuts could be on the way. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told Fox News today that up to 20% of flights could be canceled in the future if staffing shortages worsen.
The bottom line: For the first time since the shutdown started, senators will be sticking around the Capitol rather than heading home for the weekend, but it’s not clear whether they’ll have any deal to consider. “If there’s something to vote on, we’ll vote,” Thune reportedly said.