Senate Democrats Block GOP Funding Bill for 10th Time, Extending Gov. Shutdown

Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked Republican efforts to reopen the government for the tenth time, guaranteeing that the shutdown will continue into next week.

Following one final vote series later in the day, lawmakers are set to leave Washington for another long weekend after just three working days on Capitol Hill.

Both parties remain firmly entrenched in their positions, and even the limited, informal talks that had been taking place are now losing momentum.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has vowed to keep bringing up the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) for votes. The measure would temporarily fund the government through November 21, but Democrats have repeatedly rejected it.

Some Republicans have floated the idea of changing the CR’s end date, but that would require the House, which has been out of session for nearly a month, to return and pass a new bill.

The GOP insists its proposal is the only viable path to ending the 16-day shutdown. Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus are demanding that any funding deal also address expiring Obamacare subsidies and are urging President Donald Trump to step into negotiations directly.

“We’re willing to have, as I said, conversations about all the other issues that they want to talk about,” Thune said. “But that can’t happen while they are holding the federal government and all these federal employees and our troops and our air traffic controllers and our TSA agents and our border Patrol officials hostage. Open up the government.”

“Every day that this goes on, the problems are compounded for federal workers and for ordinary Americans,” Thune added. “Chuck Schumer may think that every day gets better for them politically, but I can tell you that is not the experience of the American people.”

Pressed on whether he would consider a compromise, Schumer declined to answer directly and reiterated his refusal to negotiate publicly.

“The bottom line is [Republicans] won’t even negotiate with us,” Schumer said. “So that’s a premature question. But of course, I’m not going to negotiate in public. We need to address the crisis that is afflicted, and that’s the right word, the American people.”

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., said Republicans are not drafting a subsidy proposal for Democrats and confirmed that talks between the parties are “not really” taking place anymore.

When asked if there was still time to extend the Obamacare credits before the November 1 enrollment deadline, Mullin was skeptical. “I don’t think there’s a way to do that,” he said.

“And I think if you don’t have it done by Christmas, it becomes a political issue,” Mullin added. “But you could maybe push it to January, to February, if you wanted to, but we get bumped up against, you know, everybody’s primaries, from the Democrat primaries and Republican primaries, and it becomes a political issue, because, unfortunately, healthcare is political.”

As the standoff drags on, Thune is also pushing to restart the stalled appropriations process in the Senate. He scheduled a procedural vote Thursday on the defense spending bill, which includes funding for military pay.

It remains unclear whether Democrats will support the bill after months of calling for a bipartisan approach to government funding. Following a closed-door meeting Wednesday, several Democrats said they were uncertain about what Republicans planned to bring to the floor and questioned the purpose of the vote.

As in most prior attempts, three Democrats — Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Angus King, I-Maine — sided with Republicans to advance the House-passed CR.

Fetterman, who has broken with his party consistently throughout the shutdown, said reopening the government must come before any broader negotiations.

“It was wrong to shut it down in March,” he said. “I’m in the same position. It’s not going to change. Everything else we’re talking about, open up the government first, and then we can figure out the rest.”