Senate Republicans abandon ‘piecemeal’ plan to ease shutdown pain

Senate Republicans have decided against trying to pass further piecemeal bills to mitigate some of the harms of the government shutdown as they try to get Democrats to reopen it in full.

The Trump administration has found its own solution to one of the issues Republicans had hoped to address, paying active duty military troops.

“We do think that we can continue paying the troops, at least for now,” Vice President J.D. Vance told reporters after joining Senate Republicans for their weekly conference lunch on Tuesday.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican, in various media interviews last week had teased the possibility of holding “rifle-shot” votes on standalone bills to pay the military and air traffic controllers, and to fund food benefits.

After discussing the idea with his leadership team on Monday and the full GOP conference on Tuesday, Mr. Thune announced it was no longer under consideration.

“This piecemeal approach where you do one-off here, one-off there to make it seem more politically palatable to somebody or less painful … is just the wrong way to do this,” he said.

Republicans also considered that the piecemeal votes could give Democrats political cover for keeping the government shut down, and want to keep the pressure on them to reopen it in full.

“They got a few people who are particularly vulnerable who would love to vote on a little, rifle-shot bill, but not reopen the government,” said Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican. “And so I think maybe it might be a mistake to give them an out.”

Mr. Thune said the “simple way” to end all the negative impacts of the shutdowns is for five more Democrats to join Republicans in voting to reopen the government. He said he hoped enough of them would come to their senses before Saturday, when food stamp benefits are scheduled to be suspended because of the shutdown.

“We talked about strategies for moving those five votes,” Mr. Vance said of his meeting with Senate Republicans. “We’re just going to keep working at it. The people deserve an open government.”

All but three Senate Democrats have been filibustering a stopgap bill to fund the government through Nov. 21, blocking it for the 13th time on Tuesday. They’re demanding a bipartisan negotiation on health care, including an extension of COVID-era enhancements to Obamacare premium subsidies set to expire this year.

“We Democrats want to do, and always have said we can do, both,” said Senate Democratic leader Charles E. Schumer of New York of funding the government and addressing “the health care crisis.”

Republicans had hoped a Monday statement from the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union representing federal workers, would get Democrats to budge. It urged Congress to immediately pass a “clean” stopgap spending bill and negotiate other issues after the government is reopened.

But no new Democrats voted for the measure to reopen the government on Tuesday.

“That is about as a reliable of a Democrat contingency as you can possible have,” Mr. Thune said of AFGE. “But [Democrats] seem more interested right now in what MoveOn.org and Indivisible and No Kings and all these crazy left-wing groups have to say. … They’re just flat scared of them.”

Mr. Thune said the White House has tried to reallocate funding to make the shutdown as painless as possible, but said the administration is running out of legal maneuvers.

The Trump administration transferred unobligated Defense Department research and development funding to pay the troops on Oct. 15.

Mr. Vance did not say where the funding for their next scheduled paycheck on Friday would come from.

President Trump said last week that a wealthy friend of his, identified in multiple media reports as billionaire businessman Timothy Mellon, offered to cover any financial shortfall and ensure troops get their paychecks.

The Pentagon confirmed that it received an anonymous $130 million donation “under its general gift acceptance authority,” which was made on the condition that it be used to offset the cost of service members’ salaries and benefits, according to chief spokesman Sean Parnell.

The donation has raised legal questions about whether it violates the federal Antideficiency Act, which prevents federal agencies from accepting voluntary services and spending money in excess of what is appropriated by Congress.

Senate Republicans tried last week to bring up a bill that would pay all essential federal workers who are required to work during the shutdown. Democrats blocked it after an unsuccessful attempt to advance an alternative that would have paid all federal employees, including nonessential workers who are furloughed, and blocked the Trump administration from implementing mass layoffs.

Mr. Vance said the administration does not have enough available funding to pay all government essential workers, like air traffic controllers.

“Unfortunately, we’re not going to be able to pay everybody because we’ve been handed a very bad hand by the Democrats,” he said.

The administration has also said it cannot afford to keep food stamp benefits, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, funded into November.

Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri Republican, has authored a standalone bill to fund SNAP benefits that he believes would get the 60 votes needed to clear a filibuster if GOP leaders allowed a vote on it.

“I just don’t want 42 million people to go hungry,” he said when asked about other Republicans concluding that piecemeal funding votes would take away the incentive for Democrats to reopen the government. “I’ll leave the strategy to other people, but I just don’t want 650,000 Missourians … to go hungry because of political games here.”

Democrats introduced their own standalone bill on Tuesday to extend funding for SNAP and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants and Children, which provides baby formula and other support to low-income mothers.

“We will try to get it passed on the floor,” Mr. Schumer said.