With just hours to go until a possible government shutdown, Senate Republicans will give Democrats a final chance to support their plan to keep the lights on at midnight. But inside the Capitol, few believe that Democrats are ready to yield.
The bitter stalemate between Republicans and Democrats in recent weeks — largely centered around billions of dollars in enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies — is now all but certain to result in the first government funding lapse of President Donald Trump’s second administration.
Any hope for an eleventh-hour deal was lost Monday afternoon, after a high-stakes meeting in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump and top congressional leaders led to no progress in the funding talks. Now ahead of that midnight deadline, the Senate is scheduled to vote at least once more on a GOP funding plan that Democrats have already rejected.
“It’s up to Senate Democrats,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Tuesday. “If they decide to vote it down tonight, they’re going to be the ones that have to explain at midnight tonight why the government shut down.”
The move by Thune is intended to maximize pressure on his counterpart, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has so far blocked a plan for a status-quo funding bill without commitments to extend the Obamacare subsidies. Senate Democrats have been largely united in opposing the Republican bill, and are not expected to deliver Republicans enough votes later Tuesday to pass it.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Schumer insisted Republicans will shoulder the blame for any shutdown, which he said Trump had acknowledged during their Monday meeting at the White House.
“It’s in their court to solve it. It’s their shutdown. And as I said, they are going to face tremendous pressure from the American people,” argued Schumer.
But Republicans have accused Schumer of holding government funding hostage over their demands and insist any negotiations on those tax credits should not be tied to keeping the government open.
Thune made clear Tuesday that he would not negotiate with Democrats at all on those Obamacare subsidies while the government is shut down — which would require Schumer and his party to back the GOP funding plan.
The pressure will continue when funding runs out at midnight: Senate GOP leaders plan to hold more votes Wednesday on their same funding plan, before breaking on Thursday for the Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur. Then, the Senate will return Friday and vote through the weekend on that same funding plan, according to Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso.
Thune and his GOP conference have long believed that Schumer will cave — especially as the White House’s own budget office has threatened mass firings if Congress allows a shutdown and cedes some of its spending authority to the executive branch. And if a shutdown does happen, the prevailing sense among congressional Republicans is that voters will blame Democrats for their demands, not the GOP for a no-strings-attached funding deal.
Democrats have made clear for weeks they wanted a health care concession from Trump in exchange for helping to keep the government open. In recent days, Schumer and Jeffries have argued that any agreement on health care — such as those subsidies — needs to go into law. They believe it’s the only way to make sure the president keeps his word.
Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona, told CNN “of course” he’s concerned about further cuts to the federal workforce during a shutdown, but added, “They’re firing people already,” arguing Trump and OMB Director Russ Vought, an architect of plans to drastically slash the government, have been firing federal workers without regard for their roles.
On potential impacts for the Democratic Party, Kelly said, “I’m generally not worried about the politics,” explaining that he thinks Trump is prioritizing American families behind billionaires and making their lives more expensive.
“He said he was going to be the guy that’s going to help them cut costs. And what have we seen? Cost of electricity, natural gas up, cost of food up, cost of health care about to skyrocket, and we’re trying to fix that,” he said.
Senate GOP plan: Keep voting until Democrats relent
Republican leaders in the Senate are settling on a plan: Keep voting on a seven-week funding extension until Democrats eventually capitulate.
The belief among top Republicans is that Democrats will start to bend after hearing public outcry over a loss of critical government services and as federal employees get furloughed — or even fired.
The GOP bill, which passed the House earlier this month largely along party lines, would extend government funding until late November and does not include extraneous policy provisions. But along with the expiring Obamacare subsidies, Democrats have demanded a reverse to Medicaid cuts enacted under Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” — and to constrain his ability to cut federal spending without Capitol Hill’s consent.
Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson, emerging from Monday afternoon’s closed-door meeting with Trump, said that they believe the Democratic position is unsustainable and they plan to pressure Democrats with repeated votes on the stopgap measure.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Tuesday he thinks the standoff over a shutdown could get worked out next week even as he labeled the demands from Democratic leaders as “ridiculous.”
“We’re not going to change the ‘one big, beautiful bill’ to fund the government. So that’s a kind of a stupid approach, to be honest with you,” he said. “But there are probably some things we could do to get Democratic votes that would be good for the country.”
Asked if lawmakers are heading to a negotiation phase, Graham said, “I think it will resolve itself next week, when the House gets back.”
This headline and story has been updated with additional developments.
CNN’s Alison Main contributed to this report.
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