Congress
Democrats still not supporting GOP bill to end the shutdown
Senate Democrats rejected the House-passed, GOP-led stopgap for the 13th time Tuesday, as the pain from the government shutdown is poised to escalate by week’s end.
Lawmakers voted 54-45 on the funding patch, which would float federal operations through Nov. 21. Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania — as well as Independent Sen. Angus King, who caucuses with Democrats — continued to break ranks to vote in favor of advancing the bill.
It comes as Democrats are under increasing external pressure to vote to reopen the government following a statement Monday from the powerful American Federation of Government Employees that called on Congress to immediately pass a clean stopgap bill and end the shutdown.
Democrats have largely signaled they have no immediate plans to change their position: that they would not vote to resume federal funding until Republicans come to the table to negotiate on a bipartisan compromise on soon-to-expire Affordable Care Act tax credits.
“We are in a health care crisis and Republicans don’t even want to talk about how to fix it,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday. “The president isn’t even in town as Americans are about to be devastated by the bills they’ll receive on health care.”
He was referring to the Nov. 1 date when open enrollment begins for Obamacare health plans, with people are expected to be slapped with high premiums absent a deal to extend the insurance subsidies.
But Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the No. 2 Senate Democrat, acknowledged Monday evening that AFGE’s statement could have an impact, even if he wasn’t changing his own stance at this time.
“It is in my mind,” said Durbin. “The SNAP program feeds one out of eight Americans.”
Lawmakers are staring down a grim reality that fallout from the shutdown is about to get worse, and there’s no offramp in sight. On Friday, members of the military will miss a paycheck; on Saturday, the government will stop distributing key food aid benefits relied upon by millions of low-income Americans.
And then there are worries that key personnel at airports will stop showing up for work, which could lead to major air travel disruptions as well as potential safety issues.
Republicans will discuss holding votes on stand-alone bills to lessen certain elements of shutdown pain, such as paying the troops and federal employees, during a closed-door lunch Tuesday with Vice President JD Vance.
A growing number of Democrats have signaled they would be willing to support legislation from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) that would fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, for the duration of the shutdown.
But Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Tuesday, “there’s not a high level of interest in doing carve outs, or so-called ‘rifle shots.’ I think most people realize the way to get out of this mess is to vote to open up the government.”
Republicans are not expected to give Hawley’s proposal a vote this week, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss internal scheduling.
Ultimately, with the shutdown all-but-guaranteed to cross the one-month mark, Republicans want to keep maximum pressure on Democrats to reopen the government by making conditions on the ground as unpleasant as possible.
At the same time, some GOP senators are pushing for the chamber to remain in session beyond its normal Thursday afternoon exit time to make progress on reaching an agreement to end the impasse. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) urged her colleagues to stop treating the shutdown as business-as-usual during a floor speech Monday.
Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), asked Tuesday about Murkowski’s remarks, said he was willing to stay in session through the weekend if it would result in Democrats supporting the GOP stopgap.
“We’ve been here on weekends and it doesn’t seem to have made a difference,” he added.
Sen. Eric Schmitt expressed no remorse Wednesday for falsely accusing Jack Smith of lying to Congress about attending a basketball game as a guise to investigate President Donald Trump — and for creating a viral moment that critics have seized on to undercut the GOP’s case against the former special counsel.
“He has lied before to Congress,” Schmitt, a Missouri Republican, said in an interview about whether he regretted calling Smith a liar for denying he was at an event he never attended.
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday morning, Schmitt was gearing up to deal what he thought would be a crushing blow to Smith, a longtime GOP target for his handling of two criminal prosecutions against Trump during the Biden administration.
Armed with an elaborate poster displaying text messages where Smith and a colleague discussed seating arrangements for a basketball game, Schmitt was attempting to prove that Smith secretly traveled to Atlanta to watch a home game between the Hawks and the Golden State Warriors as a guise to conspire with Fani Willis — a disgraced local prosecutor who was also pursuing criminal charges against Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election.
Smith was flummoxed by the accusation, with Schmitt saying he would give the witness “a second to process it so you don’t, you know, perjure yourself.”
But the attempt backfired when Smith soon realized he had in fact gone to a basketball game the night of Feb. 3, 2024, but not an NBA game in Atlanta, rather a women’s game in College Park between the Maryland Terrapins and the Iowa Hawkeyes.
“It’s because Caitlin Clark was coming to Maryland to play,” said Smith of the star women’s basketball player who was then playing for the Iowa team.
Schmitt said in an interview Wednesday that the mix-up was due to the fact that there were no other NBA games that same night with a 7:30 p.m. starting time.
“Well, we had text messages from [Smith’s] team that he was at a basketball game, and the only game at 7:30 tip-off in the NBA was in Atlanta,” Schmitt said, adding, “I didn’t know he was a Caitlin Clark fan. Now we know.”
A House-passed bill to restrict members of Congress from buying and selling stocks failed on the Senate floor Wednesday in a party-line vote, with Democrats insisting it would not do enough to curb lawmakers’ trading.
Senators voted 53-47 on advancing the Stop Insider Trading Act, short of the 60 votes needed. Every Democratic and independent senator voted to reject the measure, which would prohibit members and their spouses from purchasing individual stocks and institute new reporting requirements.
Among other criticisms, Democrats argued the bill would not require lawmakers to sell stocks they already own.
“The Republican toothless stock trading bill is as ineffective as a screen door on a submarine,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the floor Wednesday. “This bill has no reform, no accountability, no substance.”
Most Democrats also refused to support the bill because of voter ID requirements that were added into the bill, including some that are part of the GOP’s stalled SAVE America Act. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) called those “a poison pill” in his own floor remarks Wednesday.
Other Democrats also wanted to see the bill’s trading restrictions extended to White House personnel, including the president.
Thirteen House Democrats joined Republicans to pass the legislation in July. The White House issued a statement of support for the legislation at the time.
The stock-trading measure was among the final items of Senate business before the chamber adjourns for the midterms. Congressional stock trading has emerged as a campaign talking point in both parties as allegations of insider trading garner significant public scrutiny. Calls for a member trading ban have become a fixture of campaign ads and stump speeches and were even seen at the GOP’s September convention in Dallas.
Republicans were ready to champion the bill’s passage on the campaign trail, but they are now likely to attack Democrats for blocking the measure. GOP Sens. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska and Jon Husted of Ohio, both in tight reelection races, helped roll out the legislation.
“We need to restore the faith of the American people in the House and in the Senate,” Ricketts said on the floor Wednesday.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Wednesday progress on a new party-line spending bill is an “option” after the midterms — but cautioned that he still didn’t see a path to getting 50 votes.
Thune spoke with Budget Chair Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) Wednesday morning.
“Obviously we’re continuing to track and see what what is achievable and what we can get the votes for,” Thune said, adding that it’s “difficult.”
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