Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked the clean GOP House-passed short-term funding bill for the 10th time since the federal government shut down nearly two weeks ago. The move ensures the shutdown will continue into next week as lawmakers leave Washington, D.C., for another long weekend following only three days in session. With both parties entrenched in their positions, bipartisan discussions have slowed considerably. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has vowed to keep bringing the House-passed continuing resolution (CR), which would fund the government through November 21, to the floor for repeated votes. Some Republicans have floated adjusting the expiration date, but doing so would require the House \u2014 in recess for nearly a month \u2014 to reconvene and pass a new resolution.<\/p>\n
Despite Republican insistence that their CR is the only viable solution, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and his caucus remain focused on negotiating the future of Obamacare subsidies, urging President Donald Trump to join the talks. \u201cWe\u2019re willing to have conversations about all the other issues they want to talk about,\u201d Thune said. \u201cBut that can\u2019t happen while they are holding the federal government and all these federal employees hostage.\u201d Schumer countered that Republicans have refused to negotiate at all, saying, \u201cOf course, I\u2019m not going to negotiate in public. We need to address the crisis afflicting the American people.\u201d Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) acknowledged that Republicans were not drafting a subsidy proposal, adding that talks had stalled and warning that healthcare could become a \u201cpolitical issue\u201d if no deal is reached by Christmas.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Republicans are attempting to revive the appropriations process to fund defense and military salaries amid the shutdown. Thune scheduled a procedural vote Thursday on the Senate\u2019s defense funding bill, but Democrats remained uncertain about its details and questioned its relevance while the government remains closed. As in the previous ten votes, Senators John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), and Angus King (I-Maine) broke with Democrats to back the GOP proposal. Fetterman, who has occasionally sided with Republicans, said any policy disputes unrelated to reopening the government should wait until federal operations are restored.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked the clean GOP House-passed short-term funding bill for the 10th time since the federal government shut down nearly two weeks ago. The… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n