Senate Majority Chief John Thune (R-S.D.) and his Republican management workforce are scrambling for brand new concepts to finish the 38-day authorities shutdown after it turned clear Friday that techniques to stress Democrats to vote for a Home-passed funding invoice have failed to date.
Senate Republicans are batting round numerous concepts to interrupt the stalemate, comparable to voting on a brand new Senate-drafted invoice that may fund a big swath of the federal authorities via fiscal 12 months 2026.
This method, championed by members of the Appropriations Committee, would entail voting on three common appropriations payments that handed the Senate earlier this 12 months with sturdy bipartisan help and which have been vetted with Home Republicans.
One other thought, promoted by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), is to unveil a Republican-drafted invoice that may search to decrease rising well being care prices — tackling the problem on the heart of the battle over authorities funding.
A 3rd proposal, touted by Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), is to encourage the Trump administration to raid federally funded initiatives in Democratic states comparable to California and New York to provide you with extra funding to pay active-duty members of the navy and air site visitors controllers in the course of the shutdown.
Senate Republican leaders are on the lookout for new techniques to finish the shutdown as rank-and-file GOP lawmakers tire of voting repeatedly on a Home-passed clear persevering with decision to fund the federal government via Nov. 21.
Senate Democrats have blocked the Home-passed invoice 14 occasions, and Thune has been unable to extend the variety of Democrats supporting the measures regardless of repeated entreaties to his colleagues.
“There’s no reason to vote on the same stuff that we voted in the past just to do it again,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) instructed reporters Friday.
To date, solely three members of the Senate Democratic caucus have voted for a clear persevering with decision that doesn’t embody language to increase the expiring Inexpensive Care Act (ACA) subsidies: Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Angus King (Maine), an unbiased who caucuses with the Democrats.
Senate Republicans on the Appropriations Committee led by Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) have sought to interrupt the impasse by making an attempt to entice Democrats to vote for a “mini-bus” appropriations package deal that may fund navy building, veterans’ affairs, the Division of Agriculture and the legislative department for fiscal 12 months 2026.
The chairs of the Senate and Home Appropriations committees met Friday afternoon to place the ending touches on the package deal in hopes that it could possibly be swiftly authorized within the Home if it passes the Senate.
“From my vantage point, I still think it’s a viable option to get some of our fellow appropriators on the other side [of the aisle] to join us in voting for the CR by attaching the three-bill mini-bus and going to appropriations bills,” mentioned Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), a member of the Appropriations panel, who has been deeply concerned in talks with Democratic centrists.
Hoeven acknowledged that Senate Democratic Chief Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) gained’t conform to proceed with an appropriations package deal with out an extension of the expiring medical health insurance subsidies.
“Leadership’s dug in and the American people are paying the price because of Schumer and the leadership, and evidently folks who want to run for president, using this as a leverage play,” he mentioned. “I don’t know if their leadership ever comes around but I think there are practical Democrats that want to join with us.”
Thune instructed reporters Friday afternoon that he hoped to have the textual content of the revised appropriations package deal posted in time to behave on it over the weekend. He added that it’s unclear what the chamber will vote on over the weekend.
“We’re here and we’ll see if something comes together that we can vote on,” Thune mentioned. “It remains to be seen.”
Schumer on Friday afternoon provided Republicans a counter-proposal to reopen the federal government that would come with the GOP’s thought of attaching the minibus to a seamless decision to fund the federal government till December or January.
However Schumer insisted that such a package deal wants to incorporate a clear one-year extension of the ACA subsidies. To sweeten the supply for Republicans, the Democratic chief proposed establishing a bipartisan committee to barter long-term reforms to deal with well being care affordability.
Thune and different Senate Republicans instantly dismissed it as a “nonstarter.”
“Everybody who follows this knows that’s a nonstarter,” Thune instructed reporters. “There is no way. The ObamaCare extension is the negotiation. That’s what we’re going to negotiate once the government opens up.”
Graham, the chairman of the Senate Price range Committee, slammed the proposed one-year extension of the subsidies as “terrible” and mentioned that Republicans will quickly unveil their very own plan to curb rising insurance coverage prices.
“We’re not going to continue for a year to load up insurance companies with taxpayer dollars to get an inferior outcome. Since 2010, the five largest health care insurance companies in the country, stock prices have soared,” he mentioned. “Premiums, instead of going down for people, have gone up over 150 percent. There’s a better way to do it.”
Requested for what Republicans would do subsequent after Democrats blocked a proposal to pay important federal staff in the course of the shutdown, Graham mentioned his colleagues will look to play offense on well being care.
“We’re putting together a proposal to show that we can get better outcomes than giving a bunch of money to insurance companies,” he mentioned.
Schmitt, a Missouri Republican, says that Trump ought to transfer extra aggressively to defund Democratic priorities, reflecting the rising frustration amongst Senate Republicans over the Democrats’ refusal to budge on a funding invoice.
“The offer from Chuck Schumer and the Democrats is totally DOA,” he mentioned, warning that the shutdown is beginning to pose “serious air traffic problems” and “safety issues.”
“I am going to advocate with the administration … to go into California, to go into New York, 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,” he mentioned.
“We’ve got to pay people,” he mentioned, citing air site visitors controllers and Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) brokers.
He referred to as Senate Democrats who’ve repeatedly blocked the Home-passed funding invoice “a bunch of kamikaze pilots trying to burn this whole place down.”
With the standstill ongoing, Senate GOP members are making ready to be on the town for the foreseeable future till a deal is struck. One Senate Republican instructed The Hill that there was “unanimous support” among the many convention for staying on the town till a decision is nailed down.
Nonetheless, they’re nonetheless smarting from what they considered as an unforced error earlier within the week by Trump when he blamed the shutdown for the GOP’s poor electoral exhibiting in quite a few key races on Tuesday night time — a transfer that buoyed Democrats at a key level in bipartisan negotiations.
“That was like — let’s take a couple of cans of gas a put it on the energy pile that Democrats are running with,” the GOP member mentioned. “We’ve got to coordinate messages better.”
Democrats on Friday night indicated that regardless of the GOP’s fast rejection, they’re sticking with their proposal for the foreseeable future.
“We’re going to keep pushing this for a while,” Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who was a key determine in bipartisan discussions, instructed reporters.
