WASHINGTON — On the seventh day of the federal government shutdown, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said he agrees with President Donald Trump about working with the Democrats to address health care funding but will only do so after the government reopens.
Democrats have conditioned their support of Republicans’ short-term funding patch on a continuation of the Affordable Care Act subsidies that will otherwise expire at the end of 2025.
During a news conference Tuesday where he blamed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., as “leading the Democrats to tell the government to shut down,” Johnson urged lawmakers on the other side of the aisle to “wake up and do the right thing and stop inflicting pain on the American people.”
The federal government has been closed since Oct. 1 when Democrats and Republicans in Congress failed to pass legislation to fund the government for the 2026 fiscal year. Republicans have proposed funding the government at existing levels through Nov. 21, but Democrats have countered with funding through Oct. 31 that includes an extension of ACA subsidies.
Johnson cited new statistics from House Republicans that detailed the cost of the government shutdown. He said for each week the shutdown continues, it reduces the country’s gross domestic product by $15 billion. A monthlong shutdown not only means that 750,000 federal civilian employees are furloughed but an additional 43,000 American will be unemployed as a ripple effect, he said.
“That is the pain that is being wrung,” Johnson said. “We have troops, we have border patrol agents, TSA agents. They are all serving, protecting all of us, protecting the country without pay right now.”
Johnson addressed a new legal analysis, according to multiple reports, from the White House Office of Management and Budget that suggested the federal government might not need to provide back pay to furloughed civilian employees.
“If that’s true, that should turn up the urgency and the necessity of the Democrats doing the right thing here,” Johnson said.
The House speaker said he wasn’t read in on the details of the draft White House memo but said he and Trump both support paying furloughed workers.
Asked about the memo in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump said: “For the most part, we’re going to take care of our people. There are some people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of, and we’ll take care of them in a different way.”
Johnson said he spoke to the president “at length” Monday about negotiating with Democrats on health care funding and that he and Trump are “100% consistent and united” on the need to reopen the government first.
On Monday, Trump told reporters, “We have a negotiation going on right now with the Democrats that could lead to very good things. And I’m talking about good things with regard to health care.”
Trump then followed up on his comments in a Truth Social post, writing, “I am happy to work with the Democrats on their Failed Healthcare Policies, or anything else, but first they must allow our Government to re-open.”
Congressional Democratic leaders Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., both said Monday that they had not been in touch with the president.
“I do not know of any Democrats who have spoken to President Trump or members of his administration on this issue of reopening the government and enacting a bipartisan spending agreement and addressing the Republican health care crisis,” Jeffries told reporters Monday.
“Senate Democrats have consistently made clear that we will sit down with anyone at any time and at any place either here at the Capitol or over at the White House to reopen the government to enact a bipartisan spending agreement that actually meets the needs of the American people,” he said.
The blame game between Democrats and Republicans over the government shutdown continued Tuesday — one day after a fifth failed round of votes in the Senate on competing bills to fund the government. Neither the Republican measure nor the Democratic proposal came close to gaining the 60 votes needed to advance.
“FIVE FAILED VOTES BY SENATE REPUBLICANS. FIVE,” Schumer wrote on X on Monday. “They should know: They can’t go forward unless we come to an agreement to address the healthcare crisis in America.”
Jeffries also weighed in, writing on X on Monday, “House Republicans think protecting the healthcare of everyday Americans is less important than their vacation. We strongly disagree. Cancel the Cuts. Lower the Cost. Save Healthcare.”
The House is not expected to be in session this week, as the Senate takes the lead on funding negotiations that could reopen the government in the Republican-led Congress.
On Tuesday, Johnson condemned the Democrats’ latest counterproposal as “a list of absurd priorities” that included returning $500 million to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that was cut from the program through legislation Congress passed in July.
“It has nothing to do with the current proposal to keep the government in operation for seven more weeks so that we can continue the appropriations process,” he said.
Johnson insisted that health care negotiations with Democrats are “a December 31 issue. There are lots of conversations and deliberations and discussions right now, even bipartisan amongst members about necessary changes,” he said. “The whole point is you keep the government open and then we have those discussions. We were always planning to have those discussions in the month of October.”
Susan Carpenter
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