““The question was, does the shutdown further the goal of achieving some needed support for the extension of the tax credits? Our judgment was that it will not.”
The Senate took a major step toward ending the record-long government shutdown on Sunday, as a group of Democrats broke ranks and joined Republicans in advancing a revised plan to reopen federal agencies.
The shutdown, now in its 40th day, has left hundreds of thousands of federal workers without pay and disrupted services across the country. But signs that an end may be in sight grew stronger throughout the day, culminating in the unveiling of a bipartisan package of spending bills that lawmakers hope to attach to a modified continuing resolution (CR) to restore government funding.
According to Fox News, eight Senate Democrats joined Republicans to pass the revised package. Among those breaking with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY) were Democratic Senators Angus King (ME), John Fetterman (PA), Catherine Cortez Masto (NV), Jeanne Shaheen (NH), Maggie Hassan (NH), Jacky Rosen (NV), Tim Kaine (VA), and Dick Durbin (IL).
Senator King said in a statement that continuing the shutdown would not bring Democrats closer to their policy goal of an extension of the Obamacare tax credits. “The question was, does the shutdown further the goal of achieving some needed support for the extension of the tax credits? Our judgment was that it will not. It would not produce that result. And the evidence for that is almost seven weeks of fruitless attempts to make that happen.”
For weeks, Schumer and most Senate Democrats had insisted that they would only vote to reopen the government if Republicans agreed to extend expiring Obamacare subsidies and related tax credits. But the plan emerging in the Senate over the last several days did not include an agreement on healthcare.
The updated Continuing Resolution did include reversing some Trump administration firings of furloughed workers and guaranteeing back pay for all furloughed employees.
However, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) agreed to schedule a vote on the Obamacare subsidies in the revised continuing resolution. He said, ”Regardless, as I have said for weeks to my Democrat friends, I will schedule a vote on their proposal, and I've committed to having that vote no later than the second week in December.”
Schumer slammed the compromise and said, “When Republicans rejected our proposal, they showed that they are against any health care reform. This healthcare crisis is so severe, so urgent, so devastating for families back home that I cannot, in good faith, support this CR that fails to address the healthcare crisis.”
Progressives also slammed the compromise. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said, “If Democrats cave on this issue, what it will say to Donald Trump is that he has a green light to go forward toward authoritarianism, and I think that would be a tragedy for this country.”
House Republicans will still need to decide whether to accept the Senate’s changes, and Trump will need to agree to sign the measure. Any friction at those stages could delay or derail the reopening of the government. Additionally, opponents of the plan in the Senate could slow progress with various parliamentary maneuvers.
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