Government shutdown looms after Senate rejects House-passed stopgap funding bill

Senate Democrats on Friday blocked a House-passed bill to fund federal departments and agencies for seven weeks, putting Washington on the path to an Oct. 1 government shutdown.

Democrats came together in near unison to defeat the measure on a 44-48 vote, with only Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman (D) voting for the Republican-drafted proposal, which passed the House earlier Friday by a 217-212 vote.

Two Republicans voted against the House-passed continuing resolution: Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), an outspoken fiscal hawk who argued it would prolong Biden-era spending levels, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), a centrist who has voiced grave concerns about the Medicaid cuts Trump signed into law earlier this year. 

Democrats blocked the resolution, which would fund government until Nov. 21, after Republicans defeated an alternative Democratic proposal to fund government until Oct. 31, extend health insurance subsidies and restore nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid funding cuts.

The two failed votes leave Republican and Democratic leaders at loggerheads over how to avoid a government shutdown in only 11 days.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) put pressure on Democrats to support the House-passed stopgap funding measure, portraying it as the only bill that has a chance of getting President Trump's signature to become law.

"The Republican bill is a clean, nonpartisan, short-term continuing resolution to fund the government to give us time to do the full appropriations process," he said on the floor.

The GOP leader reiterated that he has no interest in meeting with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) to negotiate a compromise measure to keep the government open.

"I made it very clear that I wanted the Senate to return to regular order consideration of appropriations bills. I was not and am not interested in funding government through last-minute backroom deals," Thune said.  

Democrats are pressing Republicans to attach language to the continuing resolution to extend health care premium subsidies under the Affordable Care Act that are due to expire at the end of the year.  

Schumer said Friday that Republicans would be responsible for a shutdown because they are refusing to negotiate with Democrats on the funding plan despite needing Democratic votes to pass it through the Senate.

Schumer pointed out the government didn't shut down under former President Biden and Democrats controlled the Senate majority because they were willing to negotiate.

"When we were in the majority for four years, there was not a shutdown. Not one. Why? Because we did what you're supposed to do — talk in a bipartisan negotiation, and each side has input," he told Senate Republican Whip John Barrasso (Wyo.) during a heated moment on the Senate floor Friday.

"We did it the right way. You are not," he declared.

Republican leaders told House members Friday not to return to Washington until after the funding deadline expires, canceling scheduled votes for Sept. 29 and 30. The gambit gives Democrats the ultimatum of reconsidering the House-passed continuing resolution or triggering a shutdown.

"If Senate Democrats insist on a Schumer Shutdown of the federal government, Members should be prepared to return to DC," the notice sent to members reads.

Some Democratic senators are feeling uncomfortable about their leadership's risky confrontation over government funding, worrying that a shutdown could wind up giving Trump more power to reorganize federal departments and agencies and cherry-pick which federal workers are essential and must continue to work and which workers can be furloughed indefinitely.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) told The Hill that fellow Democrats' constant warnings that Trump's overzealous use of power is taking the country on the road to "autocracy" is at odds with their uncompromising position on the short-term funding bill.

Fetterman is warning colleagues that a shutdown would only hand more power to Trump and Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, something Schumer himself warned of in March when he voted for a partisan House-GOP crafted six-month continue resolution.

"If Democrats truly believe we're on a rocket sled to autocracy, why would we hand a shuttered government over to Trump and Vought's woodchipper at the OMB?" Fetterman said in a statement.

"I'm unwilling to vote for mass chaos and run that risk," he added.

But many other Democrats think they have leverage over the White House and Republicans in Congress because of rising health insurance premiums and the unpopularity of the GOP's One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, which cut $1 trillion from Medicaid.

Some Democrats think even if they don't win any concessions from Republicans during a government shutdown, they will score political points by highlighting GOP opposition to extending the enhanced ObamaCare premium subsidies and restoring Medicaid.

"Today, we have a rare moment in the Senate where two bills come to the floor that truly crystallize the contrast between the two parties," Schumer said before the vote.

"The choice is clear now. Our Republican colleagues seem to think Americans are happy with the direction of this country. They're voting like they think the status quo is good enough, even though they've heard from so many of their constituents the fear of hospitals closing, of health care being diminished, of premiums going way up," he said.  

 The alternative Democratic government funding stopgap would have permanently extended the enhanced health insurance premium subsidies at a cost of $349.8 billion over 10 years.