The government may be on the verge of reopening after Democrats splintered on their key demand and enough caved to Republicans’ refusal to negotiate on health care until the shutdown ends.
Eight Senate Democrats showed their support on Sunday for a spending package to reopen the government through January in exchange for a vote next month on extending enhanced Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year.
Those Democrats joined all but one Republican in approving a procedural vote needed to clear a filibuster on the spending package.
The 60-40 vote earned the precise number needed to overcome the filibuster and begin the process of ending the 40-day government shutdown, which broke the record for the longest in history on Wednesday.
“This was the only deal on the table,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the New Hampshire Democrat who led the negotiations for her side. “It was our best chance to reopen the government and immediately begin negotiations” on Obamacare subsidies.
The spending package is guaranteed to eventually pass the Senate, but its fate in the House is uncertain.
SEE ALSO: Democrats begin calls for Schumer’s ouster after some in his caucus fold on shutdown fight
President Trump signaled his support for the deal, which could carry enough weight with House Republicans as Democrats in that chamber have come out in full force against their Senate colleagues’ surrender on the health care fight.
“It looks like we’re getting very close to the shutdown ending,” Mr. Trump said ahead of the Senate vote.
The House has been on recess since passing a stopgap funding bill on Sept. 19. The Senate deal will replace that bill, requiring the House to return to Washington.
It will take at least a few days to process through both chambers, so the government will not be reopened until Tuesday or Wednesday at the earliest.
Democrats secured a provision in the spending package to require the Trump administration to reinstate thousands of federal employees it laid off during the shutdown and provide them with back pay.
Other employees who have been furloughed or working without compensation will also receive back pay.
SEE ALSO: Media’s message: Don’t blame Democrats for the shutdown
Most Senate Democrats voted against the measure because it does not contain an extension of the enhanced Obamacare premium tax credits, which help lower costs for consumers purchasing insurance on the program’s marketplaces.
The premium tax credits first created in the Affordable Care Act do not expire, but expanded COVID-19 pandemic versions that Democrats enacted sunset on Dec. 31.
Those enhancements cap out-of-pocket costs at 8.5% of household income and cover families that earn more than 400% of the federal poverty level, currently $62,600 for a single person or $128,600 for a family of four.
“I have been clear on this from the beginning: I will not turn my back on the 24 million Americans who will see their premiums more than double if we don’t extend these tax credits,” Sen. Ruben Gallego, Arizona Democrat, said on social media.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, voted against the deal and promised his party will continue their health care fight — into the 2026 elections if Republicans don’t eventually agree to a deal.
“Americans will remember Republican intransigence every time they make a sky-high payment on health insurance,” he said.
Several House Democrats also panned the deal for similar reasons.
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York issued a statement saying his caucus “will fight the GOP bill in the House of Representatives” because it does not extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits.
Democrats who support the deal promising an ACA vote in December expect Republicans to act or face the political consequences of letting the enhanced subsidies expire.
“Lawmakers know their constituents expect them to vote for it, and if they don’t, they could very well be replaced at the ballot box by someone who will,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, Virginia Democrat.
Other Democrats who backed the deal were Sens. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois; John Fetterman of Pennsylvania; Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire; Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen of Nevada; and Sen. Angus S. King Jr. of Maine, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats.
Most Senate Democrats – except for Mr. Fetterman, Ms. Cortez Masto and Mr. King – had been filibustering a House-passed stopgap bill to fund the government through Nov. 21 in an effort to persuade Republicans to negotiate on the Obamacare subsidies.
Republicans refused to negotiate during the shutdown.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican, has said for weeks that the best he could promise Democrats is a vote on extending the subsidies after the government is reopened, not as an outcome.
Democrats held out in the hope of a result and on Friday offered to end the shutdown if Republicans added a one-year extension of the enhanced Obamacare premium subsidies to the spending package needed to reopen the government.
Republicans rejected that as a “nonstarter.” They said they would not let Democrats hold government funding “hostage” to secure unrelated policy demands.
They also said the subsidies need to be overhauled so government money isn’t used to pad the profits of insurance companies or pay for plans that cover abortions.
Bipartisan negotiations would take place after the government is reopened to determine whether the two parties can reach an Obamacare deal that can pass both chambers.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what solutions might be brought forward,” Mr. Thune said.
“Regardless, as I have said for weeks to my Democrat friends, I will schedule a vote on their proposal, and I have committed to having that vote no later than the second week in December.”
A Democratic version would likely fail, and if a bipartisan version comes together, it may not pass the House.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, has said he would not promise a vote in his chamber.
Mr. Trump is calling on Republicans to prevent the subsidies from going directly to the insurance companies. Instead, he wants to give money to consumers to spend on health care plans of their choice.
Such a solution would be complicated to implement, with Obamacare enrollment already underway, and could mean consumers would have to pay higher premiums up front before receiving government assistance.
Although the details of the Obamacare deal are far from finalized, Senate negotiators have agreed on a spending package that would keep the government open for at least a few months.
The Senate is planning to amend the House-passed stopgap to replace the Nov. 21 deadline with a Jan. 30 date.
The new measure will include three full-year fiscal 2026 spending bills that fund the legislative branch and the departments of Agriculture and Veterans Affairs.
The remaining nine annual spending bills will be temporarily funded through the Jan. 30 stopgap date at fiscal 2025 levels, allowing more time for negotiations on full-year bills.
The outstanding bills include funding for the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Justice, Commerce, Interior, State and Treasury.
It will take a few days for the bill to be processed in the Senate unless all 100 senators consent to a time agreement.
The House then would need to vote on the amended bill.
Republican leaders have said that members should be prepared to return to Washington to vote this week if the Senate passes the deal and that they’ll give lawmakers 36 hours’ notice before a vote is scheduled.
Because the spending package includes a full year of funding for the Department of Agriculture, it will reinstate full food stamp benefits that the Trump administration had paused this month because of the shutdown.
The issue has been litigated in court. A Rhode Island federal judge ordered the Trump administration to distribute full payments of food stamp benefits, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
On Friday, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson temporarily blocked a lower court’s order for 48 hours to allow the U.S. Court of Appeals to review the decision, leaving the 42 million low-income individuals who depend on SNAP benefits to buy groceries in limbo.
The Trump administration immediately responded by directing states to halt full funding of the program or face financial penalties.
If the government reopens, the court case will become moot and states will be able to resume full payments.
• Jeff Mordock and Stephen Dinan contributed to this report.
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.
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