It’s the Senate’s last chance of the week to avoid a shutdown. There’s no sign it’s happening — but Republicans believe another failed vote Friday could help push Democrats closer to desperation and a potential off-ramp.
If the vote on the GOP-led CR goes the same way as the previous tries, “we’ll give them the weekend to think about it,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday. “And then we’ll come back and vote on Monday.”
Thune told POLITICO he’s open to meeting with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer but it depends “a little bit on how things go” Friday and what the New York Democrat’s end-game for their sit-down would be. Thune said he has talked to Schumer “briefly” since Monday.
Senate Democrats will meet for a caucus lunch, giving them another opportunity to talk strategy before senators vote Friday afternoon for the fourth time on the competing CRs.
But Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), who’s among the rank-and-file senators who’ve been backchanneling on Obamacare subsidies, described it as “the big day.” He’s hopeful that Democrats fold and give lawmakers more time to negotiate a post-shutdown health care deal. In his view — if the shutdown runs into next week — “there’s that much less time to actually be able to find a path forward using regular order to do what [Democrats] want to do.”
One person to watch in the negotiations is Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.). A veteran appropriator near retirement and an original proponent of the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, Shaheen has become a central player in the bipartisan talks around an extension of the Obamacare tax credits. Shaheen was also one of the 10 Democrats who helped advance a GOP stopgap to keep the government open in March, and was one of two Democrats who ultimately voted for it.
Thune told POLITICO that Shaheen is “more in the reasonable caucus.”
A person who has spoken with Shaheen and was granted anonymity said that while she supports larger Democratic aims, she’s also being realistic about what is achievable in the negotiations.
“I think she’s looking for a path forward,” Thune said.
What else we’re watching:
— GOP fallout over the FDA: House and Senate conservatives are ramping up criticism of the FDA after it signed off on a new generic abortion pill just before the shutdown. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) called it “shocking” and said “I have lost confidence in the leadership at FDA.” Reps. Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.) and Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) also spoke out against the decision Thursday afternoon, with Moore urging HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary to “reverse course immediately.”
Jordain Carney contributed to this report.
