Senate Democrats rejected the House-passed, GOP-led stopgap for the 13th time Tuesday, as the pain from the government shutdown is poised to escalate by week’s end.
Lawmakers voted 54-45 on the funding patch, which would float federal operations through Nov. 21. Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania — as well as Independent Sen. Angus King, who caucuses with Democrats — continued to break ranks to vote in favor of advancing the bill.
It comes as Democrats are under increasing external pressure to vote to reopen the government following a statement Monday from the powerful American Federation of Government Employees that called on Congress to immediately pass a clean stopgap bill and end the shutdown.
Democrats have largely signaled they have no immediate plans to change their position: that they would not vote to resume federal funding until Republicans come to the table to negotiate on a bipartisan compromise on soon-to-expire Affordable Care Act tax credits.
“We are in a health care crisis and Republicans don’t even want to talk about how to fix it,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday. “The president isn’t even in town as Americans are about to be devastated by the bills they’ll receive on health care.”
He was referring to the Nov. 1 date when open enrollment begins for Obamacare health plans, with people are expected to be slapped with high premiums absent a deal to extend the insurance subsidies.
But Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the No. 2 Senate Democrat, acknowledged Monday evening that AFGE’s statement could have an impact, even if he wasn’t changing his own stance at this time.
“It is in my mind,” said Durbin. “The SNAP program feeds one out of eight Americans.”
Lawmakers are staring down a grim reality that fallout from the shutdown is about to get worse, and there’s no offramp in sight. On Friday, members of the military will miss a paycheck; on Saturday, the government will stop distributing key food aid benefits relied upon by millions of low-income Americans.
And then there are worries that key personnel at airports will stop showing up for work, which could lead to major air travel disruptions as well as potential safety issues.
Republicans will discuss holding votes on stand-alone bills to lessen certain elements of shutdown pain, such as paying the troops and federal employees, during a closed-door lunch Tuesday with Vice President JD Vance.
A growing number of Democrats have signaled they would be willing to support legislation from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) that would fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, for the duration of the shutdown.
But Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Tuesday, “there’s not a high level of interest in doing carve outs, or so-called ‘rifle shots.’ I think most people realize the way to get out of this mess is to vote to open up the government.”
Republicans are not expected to give Hawley’s proposal a vote this week, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss internal scheduling.
Ultimately, with the shutdown all-but-guaranteed to cross the one-month mark, Republicans want to keep maximum pressure on Democrats to reopen the government by making conditions on the ground as unpleasant as possible.
At the same time, some GOP senators are pushing for the chamber to remain in session beyond its normal Thursday afternoon exit time to make progress on reaching an agreement to end the impasse. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) urged her colleagues to stop treating the shutdown as business-as-usual during a floor speech Monday.
Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), asked Tuesday about Murkowski’s remarks, said he was willing to stay in session through the weekend if it would result in Democrats supporting the GOP stopgap.
“We’ve been here on weekends and it doesn’t seem to have made a difference,” he added.
