Senate set for new vote to end shutdown, but gridlock over Obamacare subsidies remains

The Senate is set to return on Tuesday to again vote on whether to reopen the government, but like many times before, the plan is expected to fail again as a deal remains elusive.

Lawmakers in the upper chamber are expected to vote for an eighth time on the House GOP’s continuing resolution (CR), as the government shutdown inches closer to its third week. But after a long weekend away from Washington, D.C., it’s unlikely either party has shifted from their positions.

Senate Republicans want to pass the House’s “clean” short-term funding extension, which would reopen the government until Nov. 21. Included are millions in spending for lawmaker security and a budget fix for D.C.’s local government.

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But Senate Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., remain adamant that they will not provide Republicans and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., the needed votes to reopen the government unless there is a firm deal to extend expiring Obamacare subsidies.

Both sides are talking, breaking up into small groups that are focused on some of the Democrats’ demands, like extending the subsidies or putting guardrails on future rescissions and impoundments of federal funding.

Still, no concrete negotiations or an off-ramp out of the shutdown have materialized.

“I think Leader Schumer’s checked out,” Thune told reporters on Friday. “I don’t think this is going to happen. I think this is going to happen organically with enough reasonable Senate Democrats who care enough about doing the right thing for their country and not what’s in the best interests of their left-wing political base to come forward and help us find a solution.”

So far only three Senate Democratic caucus members, Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Angus King, I-Vt., have consistently crossed the aisle to reopen the government.

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One key deadline, which was expected to make Democrats squeamish as the shutdown continued on, was met over the weekend. While lawmakers were away, President Donald Trump authorized Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to use “all available funds” to pay military service members by Oct. 15.

But Schumer has remained steadfast that he and Democrats want more than just a guarantee on the expiring subsidies and demands that Thune, Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., come to the negotiating table.

“We Democrats want to end this shutdown as quickly as we can,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “But Donald Trump and Republicans need to negotiate with us in a serious way to fix the health care premiums crisis. We can and should do both. It’s not either or, like Republicans think.”

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But Senate Republicans have countered throughout the shutdown that Democrats routinely voted for CRs under former President Joe Biden, and that the only difference between then and now is that Trump is in office.

“A political game is being played by the Democrats because they think that every day gets better for them,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said. “And this isn’t right versus left. This is right versus wrong. That’s what we’re facing in this country today.”

And there’s still another deadline on Capitol Hill fast approaching, this time to pay Senate staff.

“I’m concerned about everybody going without pay,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said. “We need to open the government back up, and I think people need to sit down and talk to each other. And so far, the president has been unwilling to talk, the leadership in both houses have been unwilling to talk.”