Funding bill fails in Senate again on shutdown Day 3 with no deal in sight

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Friday once again failed to pass a short-term funding bill to reopen the federal government, making it likely that the shutdown now in its third day will stretch into a new week. 

Two Democratic senators and one independent who caucuses with Democrats crossed party lines to join all but one Republican in backing the bill, which passed the GOP-House earlier this month and seeks to keep the government funded through mid-November. The same three also joined with the GOP in backing the bill two previous times. Two senators, one Democrat and one Republican, did not vote. Friday’s vote marked the Senate’s fourth attempt at ushering the funding measure through the upper chamber. 

Republican leader Sen. John Thune of South Dakota signaled earlier that he would save the next try for next week, telling reporters at a press conference “hopefully over the weekend they’ll have a chance to think about it,” referring to Democrats.

After Friday’s vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana declared that Tuesday of next week through the following Monday would be a district work period, meaning lawmakers in his chamber will not return to the Capitol. 

The Democratic leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York lamented at a press conference Friday afternoon that Republicans have “wasted a week.”

State of play

Senators are now expected to head home for the weekend with little glimmer of a deal in sight. Thune indicated Friday morning that as of now, he is still banking on enough Democrats relenting under the pressure of repeated votes and flipping sides to turn the lights back on. 

“We will have a vote in another hour or two – it will be the fourth time the Democrats will have an opportunity to vote to keep the government open,” Thune said before the vote. “Now, at some point, reason, good sense, common sense, has to take effect here, because that’s really what this is.”

But so far there has been no sign of such a scenario, with no new Democrats flipping in Friday’s vote. But per Senate rules, Republicans need 60 votes for the bill to pass, meaning seven Democrats – or eight if Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky continues to vote no – need to support the measure. 

Along with the GOP-supported, short-term funding patch, senators have also rejected a counter bill Democrats offered that would reopen the government and address their health care concerns. 

Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House. However, because their support is needed for a funding bill to pass in the Senate, Democrats are demanding changes to address the “health care crisis” in America they say was created by the GOP.

Specifically, Democrats also want extensions on subsidies for those with health insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act, which have lowered costs for millions of Americans but are set to expire at year’s end, in the temporary funding patch. 

The House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York made clear to reporters on Thursday that his party wants a permanent extension of the health care credits. 

“Everyone is about to experience dramatically increased premiums, copays, and deductibles because of the Republican health care crisis – everyone in America,” Jeffries said at a press conference on Friday. “And as that happens, they’ll know that this is a result of Donald Trump and failed Republican policies who have launched the largest assault on health care in American history.”

Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have stressed they are ready to engage in bipartisan negotiations over funding and are slamming Republicans for being unwilling to do so. For the third-straight day, Johnson insisted again on Friday that the short-term funding bill passed in his chamber was as “clean” as can be – meaning it aims to keep spending at the current level previously passed by Congress and doesn’t contain tacked-on policies supported by Republicans – and therefore, there is nothing in it that can be negotiated. 

Republicans say they are willing to have conversations about the health care subsidies but argue that the issue doesn’t need to be dealt with until closer to the end of the year when they expire and that the government needs to be kept open first. 

Responding to a question about Democrats wanting agreements in writing, Johnson on Friday said the other side of the aisle wants “immediate, easy answers” on things that “take a long time to deliberate.”

Potentially complicating matters on Democrats’ demand to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies, Johnson said Republicans want to bring “reforms” to the program, also known as Obamacare.

“But we have more reforms coming to try to fix Obamacare, which is not working for the people,” he said. “But you need common sense, responsible Republicans who are serious about policy to fix that for the people, and that’s what we’re working to do.”

Thune reiterated the sentiment, saying he couldn’t make commitments on the subsidies because “that’s not something that we can guarantee that there are the votes there to do.” 

The president’s position

The shutdown has the potential to impact the economy, with hundreds of thousands of workers expected to be furloughed. And President Donald Trump has marveled at the “unprecedented opportunity” he says Democrats in Congress handed him to enact potentially permanent layoff and cuts to “Democrat Agencies” during the shutdown. 

The president said he was meeting with his Office of Management and Budget chief, Russ Vought to discuss just that.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who referred to the potentially permanent layoffs as an “unfortunate consequence” of the shutdown at Friday’s press briefing, said earlier this week that the firings were “imminent” and could be in the thousands. 

“Unfortunately, we’re having to do a massive review of the bureaucracy to be good stewards of the American taxpayer dollar, and it’s the Democrats who have forced the White House and the president into this position to shut the government down,” Leavitt said Friday. 

Despite being active on social media, Trump has not held public events over the last couple of days of the shutdown, leading Jeffries to accuse him Friday of being in a “witness protection program.” 

Leavitt called that “ridiculous fodder” and pointed to the president’s work behind the scenes.