Washington– Signs of a potential end to the government shutdown intensified Tuesday in behind-the-scenes talks, as the federal shutdown was on track to become the longest shutdown on record, disrupting the lives of millions of Americans.
Senators from both parties, Republicans and Democrats, are quietly negotiating the broad outlines of the emerging deal. With a nod to their leadership, the senators are seeking a way to reopen the government, get the normal federal funding process back on track, and find some sort of solution to the health insurance expiration crisis that is sending premium costs coast to coast.
“Enough is enough,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, said as he opened the deadlocked chamber.
On the 35th day of the federal government shutdown, the record for the longest period after midnight will be broken. With SNAP benefits cut for millions of Americans who rely on federal food assistance, hundreds of thousands of federal employees furloughed or working without pay and contracts delayed, many on and off Capitol Hill say it’s time for this to end. Transport Minister Sean Duffy has predicted there could be chaos in the skies next week if the lockdown continues and air traffic controllers lose another paycheck. Labor unions are pressuring lawmakers to reopen the government.
Election Day is seen as a turning point
Tuesday’s election provides an inflection point, as off-year gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, along with a mayoral race in New York, will show voters’ attitudes, a moment of political evaluation that many hope will turn the tide. Another test vote failed Tuesday in the Senate, where Democrats rejected a temporary government funding bill.
“We are not asking for anything radical,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said. “Reducing people’s health care costs is the definition of common sense.”
Unlike previous shutdowns during President Donald Trump’s first term, when he vied with Congress in 2018-19 for money to build the U.S.-Mexico border wall, the president has been largely absent from this shutdown discussion.
Trump threatens to cut SNAP food aid
But on Tuesday, Trump issued a new threat, warning that he would cut off SNAP food aid unless Democrats agreed to reopen the government.
SNAP benefits “will only be given when radical left Democrats open the government, which they can easily do, and not before!” Trump said on social media. This appears to defy court orders to release emergency funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
His spokeswoman, Press Secretary Carolyn Leavitt, later said the administration was continuing to pay SNAP funding in line with court orders.
With House Speaker Mike Johnson sending lawmakers home in September, most of the attention is on the Senate. There, the leadership outsourced the negotiations to a loose group of centrist dealmakers from both parties, who were quietly charting a way to end the crisis.
“We pray that today is that day,” Johnson, Republican of Los Angeles, said as he held his daily session on the empty side of the Capitol.
Features of the potential deal
It would be a series of agreements that would have to be approved by the Senate at any final stage, but also by the House of Representatives and the White House, which is very uncertain in Washington where Republicans have full control of the government.
First and foremost, senators from both parties, especially powerful members of the Appropriations Committee, are pressing to ensure that the government’s normal financing process can be put back on track.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, along with several Democrats, including Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, and Chris Coons of Delaware, are among those working behind the scenes.
“The pace of the talks has increased,” said Senator Gary Peters, Democrat of Michigan, who participated in the talks.
Among the goals is to secure upcoming votes on a smaller package of bills where there is already broad bipartisan agreement to fund various aspects of government, such as agricultural programs and military construction projects at bases.
“I certainly think this package of three bills is poised to do a lot of good things for the American people,” said Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., who also participated in the talks.
What’s more difficult is that a large number of senators also want to find a solution to the standoff over funding for Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year.
The White House will not be involved in health care until the government reopens
The White House says its position has not changed and that Democrats must vote to fund the government until talks on health care can begin. White House officials are in close contact with GOP senators who have spoken quietly with key Senate Democrats, according to a senior White House official. The official was granted anonymity to discuss the administration’s strategy.
As insurance premium notices are sent out, millions of Americans are experiencing severe shock due to high prices. The loss of federal subsidies, which come in the form of tax credits, is expected to make many people unable to purchase health insurance.
Republicans, who control the House and Senate, are reluctant to fund the health care program, also known as Obamacare. But Thune promised Democrats would vote on their preferred proposal, by a specific date, as part of any agreement to reopen the government.
That’s not enough for some senators, who see the health care impasse as part of their broader concerns about Trump’s direction of the country.
“Trump is a schoolyard bully,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, said in an op-ed. He added: “Anyone who believes that surrendering to him now will lead to better results and cooperation in the future does not understand how a power-hungry demagogue works.”
Moreover, Democrats, and some Republicans, are also pushing for guardrails to prevent the Trump administration’s practice of unilaterally cutting money for programs that Congress has already approved, by law, as billionaire Elon Musk did earlier this year at the Department of Government Efficiency.
Because the Senate, divided 53-47, has tried and failed more than a dozen times to advance the House-passed filibuster bill, the procedure is outdated. It would finance the government until November 21.
Trump called on senators to eliminate the filibuster, the Senate rule that requires a 60-vote threshold to advance most legislation, which preserves the rights of minorities in the chamber. Republican senators criticized this request.
Both Thune and Johnson acknowledged that they would need a new temporary measure. They are looking for a deal that will move beyond the Christmas holiday season, avoiding what has often been an end-of-year crisis, and instead developing a deal that would keep the government going into the near year, likely in January.
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Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Seung-Min Kim and Matt Brown contributed to this story.
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