Government shutdown to hit 1 week mark after Congress fails again to reach agreement

By Thérèse Boudreaux
The Center Square

For the fifth time in a row, U.S. senators voted down both federal funding stopgap options, extending the ongoing government shutdown into its seventh day.

The vote Monday evening showed that most Democrats haven’t budged in their opposition to Republicans’ House-passed Continuing Resolution and are sticking to their own doomed spending bill instead.

Only Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa.; Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.; and Angus King, I-Maine, (who caucuses with Democrats) voted for both the Democratic and Republican CRs. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., voted no on both.

Republicans’ CR would extend government funding for seven more weeks, buying time for lawmakers to finish properly funding the federal government through the 12 annual appropriations bills.

However, Democrats argue the bill would “gut” health care because it fails to address the expiring pandemic-era enhanced Obamacare Premium Tax Credits. Their counterproposal includes a permanent extension of the enhanced PTC and other policy riders, costing up to $1.4 trillion.

Negotiations between party leaders have essentially frozen. Republicans are confident that as the shutdown drags on, enough Democratic senators will fold – despite no evidence of that happening anytime soon.

President Donald Trump, however, remains hopeful, telling reporters that there have been productive talks with some Democrats.

“We have a negotiation going on right now with the Democrats that could lead to very good things. And I’m talking about good things with regard to health care,” Trump said.

While Republican congressional leaders have said they will only sit down with Democrats about health care policy once the government opens, Trump indicated willingness to strike a deal now.

“If we made the right deal, I’d make a deal, sure,” the president said. “I’d like to see a deal made for great health care.” He also implied that any deal must entail reforms to Obamacare, not just a funding boost like Democrats want.

Even if Republicans’ CR ultimately passes without extra spending agreed to, it caps a bad fiscal record for Congress. Lawmakers never even passed a proper federal budget for the current fiscal year 2025, instead passing three continuous CRs to extend previous year’s funding and punt the shutdown deadline to Oct. 1.

It’s been almost seven years since the federal government last shut down.