With less than 24 hours 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 — now appears likely 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.
The move by Senate Majority Leader John Thune is intended to maximize pressure on his counterpart, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who have so far blocked a plan for a status-quo funding bill without commitments to extend the Obamacare subsidies. Schumer, for his part, said the outcome is up to Trump and his GOP leaders.
“It’s now in the president’s hands. He can avoid a shutdown if he gets the Republican leader to go along with what we want,” Schumer said Monday night, hours after Congress’ top four party leaders met with Trump for a last-ditch meeting at the White House.
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.
Even one of the Senate GOP’s biggest advocates for extending those credits, Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, said he doesn’t think Democrats should force the government into a shutdown over the issue.
“I don’t understand what shutting down government has to do with that,” Hawley said. “My message to them is like, ‘Hey, I will work with you on all of those things. I think there’s a lot of common ground, but let’s leave the government funding out of it.’”
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.
“If you want to have that debate, that’s a debate to have. You don’t hold government funding hostage for it,” said GOP Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri.
“Chuck Schumer is afraid of his own shadow, and he doesn’t want to be perceived as working with President Trump,” Schmitt said. “That’s a shame, because I think the American people are going to suffer because of it.”
Asked if there’s any room for negotiations on Obamacare subsidies by Tuesday’s midnight shutdown deadline, Republican Sen. John Kennedy said, “Not unless Chuck stops smoking wizard weed.”
“We can negotiate the Obamacare subsidies and reform thereof, but we can’t do it by midnight tomorrow night,” Kennedy added. “That’s what Senator Schumer demanded, and it’s a very unserious proposal. Chuck wants a shutdown.”
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.
“We’ve got to deal with the health care collapse. We’re going off a cliff, and we can’t leave Vermonters and Americans high and dry,” Democratic Sen. Peter Welch said. “We need the president to acknowledge that he has to abide by what Congress authorizes for spending.”
Welch expressed skepticism about the two sides reaching a deal before midnight tomorrow.
“I think the odds are against it right now, and I say that with a lot of regret,” Welch said of the possibility of reaching an agreement, adding: “My hope is we’ll keep the lights on, and if they go off, I want them to get back on as soon as possible.”
Sen. John Fetterman, the lone Democrat who voted for the GOP’s funding plan during a failed vote last week, said he’s worried for the millions of people whose lives could be disrupted by a shutdown.
“You’re running the risk of plunging our nation into chaos. Millions and millions of lives will be upended,” he said. “What kind of messages does that send to our country and to our allies and to our enemies?”
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.
“Yes,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, told CNN when asked if they would keep scheduling votes on the GOP plan. Barrasso said they would continue this approach “until the government is opened again as a result of ending the Schumer shutdown.”
Leaving the Senate Republican leadership meeting on Monday night, Sen. Markwayne Mullin agreed with the tactic. “We’re gonna put it back on the floor,” if the package fails to advance on Tuesday.
“There’s no other option,” Mullin said.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, predicted that even if there is a shutdown, Democrats won’t be able to hold out for long.
“I think my sense is, if there’s a shutdown, it’ll be short, because I don’t believe that 47 Democratic senators want to walk the plank on something that — I mean, let’s face it — funding the government for Democrats is like falling off a log,” he said.
“It’s what they do. It’s what they love. So, I just don’t see, I don’t see even Chuck Schumer holding it all together for very long.”
CNN’s Alison Main contributed to this report.
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