Senate Votes Down GOP Spending Bill for Fourth Time as Shutdown Continues
The House is set to return on Tuesday
Support independent journalism, $5/month, $50/year. No billionaires, no bribes.
WASHINGTON _ The government is headed into its second week of being shut down as Congress remains in a stalemate over passing a stopgap spending bill to reopen the government, with the Senate voting down a GOP-led bill that passed the House for a fourth time on Friday.
Democrats have balked at the largely-clean continuing resolution, slamming Republicans for not being more inclusive in the negotiating process and called for language extending Obamacare subsidies to be included.
“The government remains closed because Donald Trump and Republicans insist on raising Americans’ health care premiums and kicking millions off their insurance, sending premiums skyrocketing as Republicans insist on fundamentally unsustainable [policy that] the American people overwhelmingly support, affordable health care,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the floor ahead of the vote.
Republicans have accused Democrats of holding government funding hostage, arguing they are open to negotiating health care policy but don’t feel that a short-term funding bill is the appropriate vehicle to address the matter.
“The House will come back into session and do its work as soon as Chuck Schumer allows us to open the government. That is plain and simple,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters on Friday.
“I think Democrats have backed themselves into a very difficult corner trying to litigate a very complex healthcare policy issue. It is perfectly fine to litigate, but not [to shut] down the government over [it]. You know, it’s completely unrelated to the notion of simply funding our government. … We passed a clean CR to temporarily give us some time to breathe, give us some time to negotiate,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw told 24Sight News.
“We made sure community health center funding kept going, graduate medical education programs. So that’s like residencies and hospitals,” Crenshaw added.
The shutdown has sparked the administration to discuss permanently reducing the federal workforce instead of bringing them back after being furloughed — a move slammed by Democrats. The White House has also looked to squeeze Democrats by freezing $26 billion in funding for programs in Democratic-leaning states on Wednesday.
Republicans are hoping to pick off additional Democrat senators to break party lines as pressure is expected to ramp up on lawmakers to take action as voters start to feel the pain of the implications of the shutdown. But Democrats have largely stated they plan to hold the line, asserting they feel their demands need to be met and believe Republicans will face more backlash.
And the president has taken to social media to troll members across the aisle, tweeting a video depicting Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought as the grim reaper.
While Democrats have blasted the move as a partisan attack, Johnson argued that Vought “takes no pleasure in this.”
“Is Trump trolling the Democrats? Yes. Yes! Because that’s what President Trump does and people are having fun with this,” Johnson told reporters. “Russ takes no pleasure in this. The president takes no pleasure in this. … The effects are very serious on real people, real Americans. We support federal employees who do a great job in all these different areas.”
YouTube | Bluesky | TikTok | X (when necessary) | The OG, Substack
News that gets through in DC, VA, PA
Sponsors of 24sight News get in front of our highly engaged audience of decisionmakers, professionals, thought leaders, national media and more. Top readers include heavy engagement in Northern Virginia, the suburbs of Philly and Pittsburgh and Capitol Hill.
Get in touch to discuss sponsorship options: sales@24sight.news.