{"id":14759,"date":"2025-10-23T12:16:54","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T12:16:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-senators-start-getting-stir-crazy-as-shutdown-drags-on\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T12:16:54","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T12:16:54","slug":"capitol-agenda-senators-start-getting-stir-crazy-as-shutdown-drags-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-senators-start-getting-stir-crazy-as-shutdown-drags-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Senators start getting stir-crazy as shutdown drags on"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The shutdown is going into next week \u2014 at least. And senators are getting restless.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s little hope of movement anytime soon, with President Donald Trump leaving Washington Friday for a trip to Asia for at least several days.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody knows Mike Johnson is not going to take a single step without Donald Trump\u2019s permission,\u201d Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz, a senior appropriator and the Senate\u2019s next Democratic whip, told Blue Light News. \u201cHe has to get involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

But after weeks of daily votes on the House-passed continuing resolution, Republican leaders are starting to mix it up a bit. On Thursday, they\u2019re hoping to split Democrats by holding a vote on a bill from Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) to pay troops and some federal workers on the floor. That\u2019s not expected to get enough Democratic support to pass.<\/p>\n

Senate Republicans are looking to keep the pressure on next week. Senate Majority Leader John Thune took the step Wednesday to make two other bills available for a vote: another troop pay bill from Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and a bill to pay TSA employees and air traffic controllers from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).<\/p>\n

They\u2019re also discussing voting on a bill from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) that would fund Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits<\/a> for the duration of the shutdown. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, talk of a new CR is heating up as Nov. 21, the expiration date for the House-passed stopgap, draws closer. Some Republicans are eyeing a punt though January or March. Other conservatives are pushing for a CR through December of next year, a plan that\u2019s not likely to fly with appropriators.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to get it done this year and not push it into next year,\u201d said Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), who oversees Military Construction-VA spending. \u201cAlthough there\u2019s good arguments for doing that, we don\u2019t have a whole lot of time left.\u201d<\/p>\n

While there\u2019s little hope of an immediate path out of the shutdown, the mood appears to be lightening, at least. Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Gary Peters (D-Mich.) are hosting a bipartisan lunch Thursday, and Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) \u2014 who are part of the informal group trying to find an off-ramp \u2014 said they are planning to attend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a little bit of a better spirit. Something must be happening,\u201d Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) told Blue Light News about the vibe among senators Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

What else we\u2019re watching:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014 Russia sanctions: <\/b>The top Democrat on a bipartisan effort to punish Russia for the war in Ukraine praised new sanctions issued by the Trump administration Wednesday \u2014 but thinks they don\u2019t go far enough. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said the secondary sanctions legislation he is spearheading with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) \u2014 which Trump has been reluctant to green-light \u2014 is still necessary. Their bill would impose sanctions on countries lawmakers say are \u201cfueling the Russian oil machine,\u201d like China, India, Brazil and Hungary.<\/p>\n

Jordain Carney and Calen Razor contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The shutdown is going into next week \u2014 at least. And senators are getting restless. There\u2019s little hope of movement anytime soon, with President Donald Trump leaving Washington Friday for a trip to Asia for at least several days. \u201cEverybody knows Mike Johnson is not going to take a single step without Donald Trump\u2019s permission,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14759\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}