Congress
Senate fails for the sixth time to pass a government funding bill
The Senate rejected dueling government funding bills for the sixth time Wednesday amid growing frustration over the shutdown stalemate.
The back-to-back votes come as there’s no sign of a quick offramp, with congressional leaders only becoming further entrenched the longer the funding lapse drags on.
Pouring new fuel into the standoff — and catching top Republicans off guard — was a recent suggestion from White House officials that furloughed federal workers might not get back pay. Yet more than a week since lawmakers blew past the deadline to fund government operations, party leaders continue to talk past each other in press conferences, television interviews and social media posts.
“We are in Day Eight of the government shutdown, which is unfortunate and unnecessary and totally at the behest of left-wing Democrats’ special interest groups who have pressured the Democrat leadership into a position that makes absolutely no sense to any thinking person,” Majority Leader John Thune said ahead of the vote.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer reiterated that Democrats are ready to discuss both government funding and health care.
“This is not an either-or-thing, which Republicans are making it,” Schumer said.
Democrats believe the first step to breaking the impasse involves Republicans at least talking to colleagues across the aisle. Top Republicans, however, are solidified in their stance that there is nothing to negotiate on soon-to-expire Affordable Care Act subsidies before reopening the government.
“The only way they’ve communicated is through these AI meme videos, which is a ridiculous way to run a country,” Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) said in a brief interview. “You get to an outcome by actually talking to each other, not by press conferences, not by silly meme videos.”
The House has been out of session since last month, with Speaker Mike Johnson vowing he won’t bring the chamber back until the Senate passes the GOP-led stopgap bill, which funds the government through Nov. 21.
“When the House agrees on something that’s not offensive … you ought to take it with a bow, thank them for it and pass the damn thing,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), who served in the House for six years, said in a brief interview. “If we send something more complicated back to the House, I just think we run the risk of it collapsing.”
Thune plans to make the chamber vote as soon as Thursday for the seventh time on both the Republican stopgap and the Democratic alternative, which would run through Oct. 31 and force Republicans’ hands with health care concessions and guardrails around spending. The same, failed outcome for each bill is all but guaranteed.
“You’ve got to ask our Democratic colleagues,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) when asked if he expected a different result.
A bipartisan group of senators are having conversations about what could happen once the government reopens as far as the fate of the ACA credits and the appropriations process, but so far those talks have not garnered enough Democratic support.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he wants to clinch a bipartisan Department of Homeland Security funding agreement Thursday.
“I think the Dems are now in possession of what I think is our last and final” offer, Thune told reporters. “So let’s hope this gets it done.”
“We’re going to know soon,” he added.
The South Dakota Republican declined to discuss details of the offer but suggested it was similar to where the discussions were headed over the weekend. GOP senators then were looking at a bipartisan deal that would fund most of DHS but leave out funding for ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations.
That offer was rejected by Democrats. But two people granted anonymity to discuss the revised proposal said it, too, omitted only ERO money but included additional language to try to address some of Democrats’ concerns.
Spokespeople for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Senate is expected to vote again on the House-passed DHS bill Thursday afternoon. The House is also voting again on DHS funding Thursday and is planning to leave town Friday morning for a two-week holiday recess. Progress in the Senate could prompt House GOP leaders to stay in session in hopes of sending a bill to President Donald Trump.
Asked about the Senate vote, Thune said he hoped there would be “some finality in this real soon.”
Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins joined the House Problem Solvers Caucus lunch Thursday to talk about the stalled Homeland Security funding effort and proposals to overhaul federal immigration enforcement activities.
“I think everyone is pretty frustrated at this point,” the Maine Republican said in an interview after the bipartisan meeting.
The centrist group, which extended the invitation to Collins, talked through the pain points on finding a path out of the DHS shutdown that has stretched more than 40 days and is triggering massive air travel disruptions. The conversation comes ahead of a House vote later Thursday on funding DHS, where moderates are looking to break the impasse.
Meredith Lee Hill, Jordain Carney and Riley Rogerson contributed to this report.
As House Republicans start to dream big about another party-line bill, one key member who voted down the last GOP reconciliation bill is warning his colleagues not to count on his support.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) referenced his vote last summer against the “big, beautiful bill” in an interview Thursday and suggested he was prepared to oppose another GOP-only bill if it, too, includes spending cuts he opposes to social programs.
“You saw what I did on the first reconciliation bill,” Fitzpatrick said. Fitzpatrick and just one more House Republican could be enough to tank a party-line package given Speaker Mike Johnson’s slim majority.
Still, many of Fitzpatrick’s colleagues are making plans for an expansive new GOP-only bill that would include more money for Homeland Security operations, Iran war funding and other cost-of-living priorities, while demanding it be fully offset with spending cuts — possibly from social programs targeted for “fraud prevention.”
“You never say ‘never’ at anything, but I’m never a fan of single-party bills,” Fitzpatrick said. “That’s just my approach to government.”
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