Congress

Why Senate Republicans aren’t uniting behind a health care plan

Published

2 months ago

December 9, 2025

Senate Republicans have no shortage of health care plans. The challenge is getting all 53 of them to rally behind one.

Three days before a high-profile vote on a Democratic proposal to extend expiring Obamacare subsidies, GOP senators are nowhere near coalescing behind any single alternative that could be put up alongside it. Instead, Republican leaders appear happy allowing their members to freelance, even as Democrats and some in their own ranks fume at the lack of clear direction.

For Republicans, the risk of proceeding Thursday with a side-by-side vote is clear. While Democrats say they will have their entire 47-member caucus behind the three-year extension, any GOP plan right now is likely to fall well short of complete unity — and highlight the divisions in their party.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune called the upcoming vote on Democrats’ plan “a political messaging exercise,” one he agreed to last month as part of a deal to end the 47-day government shutdown. He didn’t commit to putting up a GOP counteroffer for a vote.

“I don’t think they’re serious about wanting to do a deal yet, so I think that may be what this week is about,” Thune told reporters Monday. “But we’ll see from there if there is a genuine interest in trying to do something.”

GOP senators are expected to further discuss their options at a closed-door lunch Tuesday and make a final decision about their posture. But, according to three Republican aides granted anonymity to comment on internal conference dynamics, leaders are not currently expected to offer an alternative for a vote Thursday.

One of the aides said Republicans will be prepared to make the case they have plenty of ideas and are ready to talk with Democrats once they move off a proposal that won’t get the 60 votes needed to advance.

But some Republicans want their leaders to put some concrete alternatives forward as more than 20 million Americans face the loss of enhanced Obamacare tax credits that were implemented as a Covid relief measure under President Joe Biden in 2021 and later extended through 2025. Without them, many families could see premiums rise by $1,000 a month or more.

“What signal would that send if Republicans say, ‘Yeah, we’re going to say no to the Democrats’ plan, but we’re not going to offer anything?’” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said. “The message that will send is, good luck to the American people, and we don’t really care.”

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said in an interview that simply standing aside while Democrats vote to extend the subsidies would be “a big mistake.”

“A lot of my colleagues, I think, will be very upset if we don’t put something up,” he said.

But there are multiple competing proposals that are favored by subsets of the Senate GOP. Some of them include shorter extensions of the expiring subsidies. Others seek to replace them with new frameworks, generally involving giving Americans cash in the form of health savings accounts to help underwrite premiums and other costs.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) is among those pushing for a clean break from the Affordable Care Act subsidy framework that reflects “what we believe in” as free-market-oriented Republicans. “I always think it’s good to have an alternative,” he said in an interview.

But Thune praised another proposal being circulated by Sens. Mike Crapo of Idaho and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who chair the health-oriented Finance and HELP committees, respectively.

Their proposal, released Monday, would expand the use of health savings accounts and direct funding toward them without extending the enhanced Obamacare subsidies.

Cassidy said Monday that it is a “leadership decision” if his proposal gets a vote Thursday. Thune took steps Monday night to make the bill available for a vote later this week, as Republicans try to keep options on the table ahead of Tuesday’s lunch.

But Thune also acknowledged some of his members have other ideas centered on extending the enhanced subsidies with a new income cap and other eligibility restrictions. Republican Sens. Bernie Moreno of Ohio and Susan Collins of Maine, for instance, propose to extend the expiring subsidies for two years with income cap restrictions and minimum premium payments.

That proposal won some Democratic interest Monday from Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the No. 2 party leader, who called it “encouraging” and “in the ballpark” of a workable solution — though he cautioned he hadn’t seen the details.

“It’s not crazy,” Durbin said. “Let’s have a conversation.”

The Senate GOP is straining to formulate a path forward as House Republicans race to come up with their own plan in hopes of putting some health care legislation up for a vote next week before lawmakers break for the holidays — and the enhanced subsidies expire, returning them to the original levels as passed in the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

House GOP leaders still need to make key decisions, including if they try to assemble one bill or put up a suite of bills for members to pick and choose from. But they, too, are under pressure from a slice of members to embrace an extension of the subsidies — even as most in the party are happy to see them expire.

President Donald Trump hasn’t put forward his own framework, which could have helped rally the disparate factions of his party on Capitol Hill. And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer hammered Republicans Monday, saying that they “have no plan.”

“The question Republicans face this week is very simple: Will they support our bill and lower people’s premiums or will they block our bill and send premiums through the roof?” Schumer said from the Senate floor Monday.

While the Democratic proposal is expected to fall well short of the necessary 60 votes, a handful of Republicans haven’t said yet how they will vote. Hawley, for instance, said Monday “everything is on the table.”

“What I’m not going to do is do nothing,” he said.

It’s likely Thursday’s vote won’t be the last word on health care this Congress. Thune left the door open to further bipartisan negotiations, and there’s some hope on both sides of the aisle that a failed vote — or votes — could in fact lend new momentum to the talks. Lawmakers are increasingly eyeing Jan. 30, the next government funding deadline, as the real cutoff to land a health care deal.

But getting to that point will require Democrats to compromise and Republicans to get together behind a plan of some kind. Asked Monday if his ranks were united or divided on health care, Thune acknowledged reality for a party that has struggled on the issue for decades.

“I think we have people in different camps, as you would expect,” he said.

Calen Razor and Benjamin Guggenheim contributed to this report.

Congress

Shutdown likely to continue at least into Tuesday

Published

12 hours ago

February 1, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The partial government shutdown that began early Saturday morning is on track to continue at least into Tuesday, which is the earliest the House is now expected to vote on a $1.2 trillion funding package due to opposition from Democrats and internal GOP strife.

House Republican leaders have scheduled a Monday meeting of the House Rules Committee to prepare the massive Senate-passed spending bill for the floor. According to two people granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, the procedural measure teeing up a final vote would not happen until Tuesday, with final passage following if that is successful.

That’s one day later than GOP leaders had hoped. Their previous plan was to pass the bill with Democratic help under suspension of the rules, a fast-track process requiring a two-thirds-majority vote.

But that plan was complicated by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries telling Speaker Mike Johnson in a private conversation Saturday that Democratic leadership would not help Johnson secure the 70 or so Democratic votes to get the measure over the line, according to the two people and another person granted anonymity to discuss the matter.

The Tuesday plan remains tentative as GOP leaders scramble to navigate tensions inside their own conference, which could make passing the procedural measure difficult. Some conservative hard-liners, for instance, want to attach a sweeping elections bill to the package.

Jeffries said in a MS NOW interview Saturday that Republicans “cannot simply move forward with legislation taking a my way or the highway approach” while noting that House Democrats are set to have “a discussion about the appropriate way forward” in a Sunday evening caucus call — first reported by Blue Light News.

He did not rule out that Democrats might support the Senate-passed spending package, which funds the majority of federal agencies through Sept. 30 while providing a two-week extension for the Department of Homeland Security — including controversial immigration enforcement agencies.

Democrats, Jeffries said, want “a robust, ironclad path to bringing about the type of change that the American people are demanding” in immigration enforcement.

Congress

Here’s what federal programs are headed for a (possibly brief) shutdown

Published

2 days ago

January 31, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Government funding is set to lapse at midnight Friday for the military and many domestic programs, but cash will continue to flow at a slew of federal agencies Congress already funded.

House leaders are aiming to send a funding package to President Donald Trump Monday, days after the Senate passed the legislation just before the deadline to avert a partial shutdown.

The effect on most federal programs is expected to be minor, and employees who are furloughed would miss just one day of work if the House acts on schedule — which is not assured.

This time, many of the services that have the greatest public impact when shuttered — like farm loans, SNAP food assistance to low-income households and upkeep at national parks — will continue. That’s because Congress already funded some agencies in November and earlier this month, including the departments of Energy, Commerce, Justice, Agriculture, Interior and Veterans Affairs, as well as military construction projects, the EPA, congressional operations, the FDA and federal science programs.

Still, the spending package congressional leaders are trying to clear for Trump’s signature next week contains the vast majority of the funding Congress approves each year to run federal programs, including $839 billion for the military.

Besides the Pentagon, funding will lapse for several major nondefense agencies beginning early Saturday morning.

That includes federal transportation, labor, housing, education and health programs, along with the IRS, independent trade agencies and foreign aid. The departments of Homeland Security, State and Treasury will also be hit by the shutdown.

Congress

Senate passes $1.2T government funding deal — but a brief shutdown is certain

Published

2 days ago

January 30, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Senate passed a compromise spending package Friday, clearing a path for Congress to avert a lengthy government shutdown.

The 71-29 vote came a day after Senate Democrats and President Donald Trump struck a deal to attach two weeks of Homeland Security funding to five spending bills that will fund the Pentagon, State Department and many other agencies until Sept. 30.

The Senate’s vote won’t avert a partial shutdown that will start early Saturday morning since House lawmakers are out of town and not scheduled to return until Monday.

During a private call with House Republicans Friday, Speaker Mike Johnson said the likeliest route to House passage would be bringing the package up under a fast-track process Monday evening. That would require a two-thirds majority — and a significant number of Democratic votes.

The $1.2 trillion package could face challenges in the House, especially from conservative hard-liners who have said they would vote against any Senate changes to what the House already passed. Many House Democrats are also wary of stopgap funding for DHS, which would keep ICE and Border Patrol funded at current levels without immediate new restrictions.

If the Trump-blessed deal ultimately gets signed into law, Congress will have approved more than 95 percent of federal funding — leaving only a full-year DHS bill on its to-do list. Congress has already funded several agencies, including the departments of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs and Justice.

“These are fiscally responsible bills that reflect months of hard work and deliberation from members on both parties and both sides of the Capitol,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) said before the final vote.

The Office of Management and Budget has issued shutdown guidance for agencies not already funded, which include furloughs of some personnel.

Republicans agreeing to strip out the full-year DHS bill and replace it with a two-week patch is a major win for Democrats. They quickly unified behind a demand to split off and renegotiate immigration enforcement funding after federal agents deployed to Minnesota fatally shot 37-year-old U.S. citizen Alex Pretti last week.

But Democrats will still need to negotiate with the White House and congressional Republicans about what, if any, policy changes they are willing to codify into law as part of a long-term bill. Republicans are open to some changes, including requiring independent investigations. But they’ve already dismissed some of Democrats’ main demands, including requiring judicial warrants for immigration arrests.

“If Republicans are serious about the very reasonable demands Democrats have put forward on ICE, then there is no good reason we can’t come together very quickly to produce legislation. It should take less than two weeks,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Friday.

Republicans have demands of their own, and many believe the most likely outcome is that another DHS patch will be needed.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), for instance, wants a future vote on legislation barring federal funding for cities that don’t comply with federal immigration laws. Other Republicans and the White House have pointed to it as a key issue in the upcoming negotiations.

“I am demanding that my solution to fixing sanctuary cities at least have a vote. You’re going to put ideas on the floor to make ICE better? I want to put an idea on the floor to get to the root cause of the problem,” Graham said.

The Senate vote caps off a days-long sprint to avoid a second lengthy shutdown in the span of four months. Senate Democrats and Trump said Thursday they had a deal, only for it to run into a snag when Graham delayed a quick vote as he fumed over a provision in the bill, first reported by POLITICO, related to former special counsel Jack Smith’s now-defunct investigation targeting Trump.

Senate leaders ultimately got the agreement back on track Friday afternoon by offering votes on seven changes to the bill, all of which failed. The Senate defeated proposals to cut refugee assistance, strip out all earmarks from the package and redirect funding for ICE to Medicaid, among others.

Graham raged against the House’s move to overturn a law passed last year allowing senators to sue for up to $500,000 per incident if their data had been used in former special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the 2020 election. But he backed off his threats to hold up the bill after announcing that leaders had agreed to support a future vote on the matter.

“You jammed me,” Graham said on the floor Friday. “Speaker Johnson, I won’t forget this.”

Meredith Lee Hill and Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.