Ossoff, Warnock break with Democrats on bill to pay essential workers during shutdown

Sen. Jon Ossoff (Ga.), the most vulnerable Democratic incumbent in the Senate, and his home-state colleague, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), voted Thursday for a Republican bill to pay essential federal workers, including members of the military, during the government shutdown.

Ossoff and Warnock joined Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) in voting for the Republican bill. The measure failed to advance on a 54-45 vote. It needed 60 votes to move forward.

Ossoff's and Warnock's votes are notable because they have voted 12 times against a House-passed bill to reopen the government and fund it through Nov. 21.

They have, however, voted repeatedly for a Democratic alternative to fund the government through Oct. 31, permanently extend enhanced health insurance premiums and restore nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts.

Ossoff told reporters after the vote that "military service members, TSA workers, air traffic controllers, other federal workers have no choice but to come to work, and they should be paid for that work."

Ossoff voted for the Shutdown Fairness Act, sponsored by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), despite Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) calling it a "a ruse."

Schumer warned it would give too much power to the Trump White House to determine which federal workers get paid and which remain furloughed.

He argued the bill would extend the shutdown by taking pressure off Republicans to negotiate with Democrats on addressing rising health care premiums as part of a broader deal to reopen the government.

"The only way to pay every federal worker is for Republicans to get serious, sit down with Democrats," Schumer said on the floor.

Johnson's bill would pay active-duty military service members, air traffic controllers, Transportation Security Administration staff, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Border Patrol agents and other essential workers during the shutdown.

Ossoff said he agrees with Democratic leaders that Republicans need to negotiate on a deal to extend enhanced health insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, even if he disagreed with Schumer's exhortation to vote against the Shutdown Fairness Act.

"It is indeed on the White House, the Speaker of the House to engage in a real bipartisan conversation to get us out of this impasse," he said. "Open enrollment in health insurance is in nine days. My constituents face 100 , 200 , 300 percent increases in their health insurance premiums. We have to fix this now," Ossoff said.

Asked about criticism that the GOP bill would not prevent the Trump administration from carrying out mass firings, Ossoff said "the administration's mass firings have been a disaster for Georgia," noting that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is based in Atlanta, has lost a quarter of its workforce.

Warnock said Republicans are "tragically holding the American people who need health care hostage" and "holding federal workers hostage."

He argued that federal workers who are required to work without pay throughout the shutdown should not be "punished."

"Just because they decided to shut down the government doesn't mean these workers ought to be punished," he said, referring to Republicans.

Warnock said he wanted to give some "relief" to federal workers, even though the Shutdown Fairness Act wouldn't pay furloughed federal workers.

"Some of these folks that they are holding hostage had a path to get some relief, I'm happy to offer that to them," he told reporters.

Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Angus King (Maine), an independent who caucuses with Democrats, voted against the proposal to pay essential federal workers, even though they have voted repeatedly with Fetterman for the House GOP-drafted "clean" continuing resolution to reopen the government.

Cortez Masto said she agreed with Schumer's argument that the Shutdown Fairness Act would give Trump and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought too much power to decide which federal workers get paid and which remain furloughed.

"This would give more power to the administration, which is why I was concerned about shutting down the government in the first place. This administration would decide who gets paid and who doesn't and I don't think that's how it should work," she said.