Senate Democrats’ counteroffer to congressional Republicans’ short-term government funding extension was torpedoed by the GOP on Friday.
The bill, which varies drastically from the House’s proposal that passed earlier in the day, was filled with Democratic priorities that they say are the only sweeteners that would convince them to keep the government open. But the provisions were a bridge too far for Senate Republicans.
The Democrats’ bill, which was unveiled late Wednesday night, failed 47-45 along party lines. However, the GOP’s CR will be voted on right after. The fate of that bill is in the air, given that Democrats have vowed to oppose it throughout the week.
The deadline to pass a government funding extension, known as a continuing resolution (CR), is Sept. 30, and lawmakers are expected to leave Washington, D.C., Friday night for a weeklong recess to observe the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah.
House Republicans unveiled their CR on Tuesday and have lauded the bill as a ‘clean’ funding extension until Nov. 21. While it doesn’t include partisan policy riders, it does include tens of millions to beef up security measures for lawmakers.
However, Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., opted to go with their own version of a CR, not because they disliked what was in Republicans’ bill, but what was not in it. They’ve also dug in against President Donald Trump’s demand that Republicans cut Democrats out of the process.
Their plan would have kept the government open until Oct. 31, permanently extended expiring Obamacare premium subsidies, undoing the ‘big, beautiful bill’s’ Medicaid cuts, and clawing back the canceled funding for NPR and PBS.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., panned the bill and argued that the Republicans’ legislation was everything Democrats had pushed when they controlled the Senate under former President Joe Biden.
‘It’s not clean – it’s filthy,’ Thune said. ‘It’s packed full of partisan policies and measures designed to appeal to Democrats’ leftist base.’
However, Schumer has accused Thune of not coming to the negotiating table and directly engaging with him to find a path forward to avert a government shutdown.
Democrats particularly want a deal on the expiring Obamacare subsidies, along with some assurances on future rescissions and impoundments.
‘We’ll sit down and negotiate, if they will sit down and negotiate,’ Schumer said. ‘We don’t have a red line, but we know we have to help the American people.’