For the tenth time since the government shutdown began nearly two weeks ago, Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked the House-passed short-term funding bill, extending the impasse that has left federal agencies shuttered and thousands of employees without pay.
The Senate adjourned for another extended weekend after just three days in session, ensuring that the shutdown will stretch into next week. With both parties entrenched in their positions, prospects for a breakthrough have grown increasingly slim as informal discussions between Republicans and Democrats have largely fizzled.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) remains determined to continue putting the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) — which would temporarily reopen the government until November 21 — up for repeated votes. While some Republicans have floated adjusting the expiration date of the measure, doing so would require the House, which has been in recess for nearly a month, to reconvene and pass a revised version.
“We’re willing to have, as I said, conversations about all the other issues that they want to talk about,” Thune stated. “But that can’t happen while they are holding the federal government and all these federal employees and our troops and our air traffic controllers and our TSA agents and our border Patrol officials hostage. Open up the government.”
Thune also warned that the ongoing stalemate was taking a growing toll. “Every day that this goes on, the problems are compounded for federal workers and for ordinary Americans. Chuck Schumer may think that every day gets better for them politically, but I can tell you that is not the experience of the American people,” he added.
Despite mounting pressure from both sides, negotiations have failed to gain traction. Senate Democrats, led by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), continue to insist that any funding measure must address the expiration of Affordable Care Act subsidies — an issue they say has been neglected by the administration.