WASHINGTON — The government shutdown is set to drag into its fourth week, and lawmakers have made little progress on coming to an agreement to turn the lights back on. Senate Republicans will try to ramp up pressure on their Democratic colleagues this week, but a long-term solution has yet to be found.
The Senate will return on Monday evening to vote for the 11th time on a Republican-led spending resolution to reopen the government until Nov. 21 and buy more time for appropriators to finish the full-year bills that were supposed to be finished by Oct. 1. But Democrats remain opposed to any spending bill unless Republicans can guarantee a permanent extension of some COVID-19-era Obamacare tax subsidies.
Meanwhile, Sunday marks one month since the House has been in session as GOP leaders have kept lawmakers out of Washington in a bid to pressure Senate Democrats to swallow their spending bill. So far, that take-it-or-leave-it strategy has not budged any Democrats out of line.
But Senate Republicans will begin considering other paths out of the 20-day shutdown with a vote on Monday to pay “excepted workers,” meaning federal employees who are deemed essential and must continue to work during the shutdown even though they aren’t getting paid. The vote comes despite Republican leaders being mostly opposed to standalone legislation, possibly signaling a change to long-term strategy as a way to break the Senate impasse.
The bill will require 60 votes to advance, but it’s not yet clear if Democrats will vote in favor. However, Democrats have previously called for standalone votes to ensure military pay during the shutdown, so it’s possible a handful of them will cross party lines.
If the proposal does pass the Senate, it would require approval from the House before it can be sent to the White House for President Donald Trump’s signature. However, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., sidestepped questions on whether he’d bring the House back into session as he has previously said he would not reconvene until the government is reopened.
“If we have a viable path, yes,” Johnson said, not elaborating on what a “viable path” would look like. “But I suspect the Democrats are going to bat it down again.”
Democrats have not yet voted on standalone legislation to pay the troops or other essential workers. But the party did vote against a bill last week to proceed on the full-year appropriations bill for the Defense Department that Republicans planned to attach other spending bills to in order to expedite the process.
Several Democrats indicated they wouldn’t support the legislation without knowing the details of what Republicans planned to add later. By advancing the House bill, Senate Republicans planned to replace the language with their own version of the defense spending bill — and possibly tie in three other spending bills also awaiting a vote in the Senate. By doing so, it creates a “minibus” of sorts that would allow the Senate to consider multiple spending bills at once they can then negotiate with the House.
The failed vote has left the Senate at a standstill, but bipartisan negotiations are taking place behind the scenes among rank-and-file senators to find a path forward.
For example, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has offered to hold a vote on a one-year extension on certain COVID-19-era Obamacare tax subsidies, offering a small concession on Democrats’ main demand if they vote to reopen the government. So far, Senate Minority Leader Schumer has not agreed to the compromise — sticking to his party’s desire to permanently extend the credits.
Other Democrats have expressed hesitancy, arguing they lack confidence in their GOP colleagues to keep their word.
“We simply cannot trust Republicans to renew it every year,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told the Deseret News. “Maybe there are other incentives that can be offered that would persuade me that a one-year extension is OK.”
The lack of cooperation has frustrated Thune, who said Democrats are merely refusing to accept any compromise. Instead, he accused Democrats of using the shutdown to score political points.
“The Democrat Party is the party that will not take yes for an answer,” Thune said in a floor speech on Thursday. “This is politics. If anything was needed to demonstrate just how fundamentally uninterested Democrats are in supporting our troops and defending our country, just take a look at this vote.”