Senate Republicans are trying to end the government shutdown by preparing a new bipartisan package of spending bills and daring Democrats to vote for it, but it was unclear if their plan would work.
Many Democrats said they would continue to push to extend expiring health care subsidies that were not included in the legislation.
Senate Democrats, who have now voted 14 times not to reopen the government, left few answers from their second meeting Thursday about whether they will eventually find a compromise with Republicans, or even among themselves, on how to end the shutdown.
A trial vote on the new package, which has not yet been publicly revealed, could take place as early as Friday. Democrats will then have to make a crucial choice: Will they continue to fight for a meaningful extension of the health care subsidy deal that expires in January while prolonging the pain of the shutdown? Or are they voting to reopen the government and hoping for the best, as Republicans promise a final vote on health care but no guaranteed outcome?
Many Democrats, buoyed by the election earlier this week, say the fight is not over until Republicans and President Donald Trump negotiate with them on an extension.
“That’s what leaders do,” said Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico. “You have a piece, you have a majority, you have to bring people together.”
Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz said Democrats are “obviously not united,” but they are united that “without health care, the vote is unlikely to pass.”
Other Democrats have been working on a deal that would reopen the government only after an agreement is reached on a future vote on health care subsidies. Lawmakers of both parties felt a growing need to ease the growing crisis at airports, pay government workers and restore delayed food aid to millions of people now that the shutdown has become the longest in US history.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune decided to hold Senate hearings Friday and possibly into the weekend after Trump urged Senate Republicans to end the shutdown at a White House breakfast on Wednesday. Trump said he believed the six-week impasse was a “big, negative factor” for Republicans in Tuesday’s election.
A new effort to renew the government
Thune’s proposed bipartisan package would fund parts of the government — food aid, veterans programs and the Legislature, among others — and extend funding for everything else until December or January.
The new package will replace a House-passed bill that Democrats have repeatedly rejected. The legislation would only extend government funding until Nov. 21, a date fast approaching after six weeks of inaction.
The details have yet to be ironed out, but the new legislation represents a tentative blueprint that moderate Democrats have drawn up in hopes of reaching a deal. The proposal, led by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, would also take into account a Republican proposal to hold a later vote on extending subsidies for the expiring Affordable Care Act.
It was still unclear what Thune, who has refused to negotiate while the government is shut down, would promise on health care and whether enough Democrats would agree to move forward. Republicans have been five votes short of the 60 they need for weeks.
Johnson obstructs bilateral talks
Democrats are under pressure from unions that want the shutdown to end and from allied groups that want them to hold firm. Many Democrats argued that the Democrats’ performance in Tuesday’s election shows that voters want them to keep fighting until Republicans relent and agree to extend the health tax credits.
The vote on health care subsidies “has to mean something,” Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who aligns with Democrats, said this week. “It represents a commitment by the Speaker of the House that he will support the legislation that the president will sign.”
But Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., made it clear Thursday morning that he would not make any commitments to Democrats. “I’m not making any promises to anybody,” Johnson said when asked if he could promise a vote on the health care bill.
Johnson’s flat refusal was a setback for the negotiators. Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, one of the moderate Democrats involved in the talks, said the speaker’s comments were a “big problem.”
“We need to make sure we have an agreement that we can get broad support for,” Peters said.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has yet to weigh in on the latest effort. He has repeatedly urged Trump to sit down with Democrats, a meeting that seems unlikely.
“Donald Trump is clearly under pressure to end this shutdown,” Schumer said Thursday.
Closed-door negotiations become public
The group of Democrats and Republicans, who have been quietly negotiating for weeks, said they were making steady progress on a deal.
In a new development Thursday, Republicans suggested they could be willing to include language in the final deal that would reverse some of the massive layoffs of government workers at the White House, said two people familiar with the private negotiations, who spoke on condition of anonymity. However, it was unclear whether the proposal would be included in the new package of laws.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, a moderate Republican who has spoken to Democrats, says she wants to see furloughed workers reinstated and workers laid off during the shutdown “retired.”
“We are still negotiating that language,” she said.
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Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti, Kevin Freking and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.