Bipartisan talks to end shutdown percolate in Senate

WASHINGTON — Amid tough talk from both sides of the aisle about who’s to blame for the partial government shutdown, bipartisan talks began to take shape as the rank and file sought a way out of the impasse.

Various groups of senators were seen huddling on the floor Wednesday during a vote series, even as Democrats again mostly rejected the House-passed stopgap funding bill that would reopen the government through Nov. 21.

The 55-45 margin on the procedural vote was the same tally as the night before, with the same three Democratic caucus members crossing the aisle to support it: Nevada’s Catherine Cortez Masto, Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman and Maine’s Angus King, an independent who caucuses with the party.

That’s two more Democratic caucus members than voted for the measure 10 days ago, which Republicans believe demonstrates fissures in the ranks that will only grow as the shutdown’s impacts build. But it’s five votes short of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster.

“We need five more in order to reopen the government, and that’s really where we’re going to focus,” Vice President JD Vance told reporters at the White House. “I think it’s tough to predict what shape this negotiation is going to take over the next few months, but I feel good about the fact that Democrats already realize privately the fundamental irrationality of their position.”

The main issues for Democratic holdouts include some kind of commitment to deal with expiring provisions that boost the size of tax credits for health insurers to lower premiums charged for coverage purchased on government-run exchanges.

There’s also interest in something to rein in the White House’s ability to cancel or freeze previously agreed-upon funding, but the premium tax credits appear to be the chief focus of bipartisan discussions.

‘Show me receipts’

If five additional Democrats are going to crack, none appeared ready to do so Wednesday. New Hampshire Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan and Michigan’s Gary Peters are among those who voted to prevent a shutdown earlier this year and were part of various discussions during Senate floor votes.

“I think it was a very constructive conversation,” Peters said. “We’ve just got to keep talking. That’s the key thing.”

Some Democrats appeared to be floating very short-term stopgap bills to reopen the government while talks continued, though Republicans haven’t expressed any interest in that, at least not yet.

Leaving the Senate floor, Democrats involved in the conversations declined to confirm or deny discussions about a very short continuing resolution.

“I was throwing out some ideas that would give them room and give us room, and we all agreed that we’ll continue talking,” said Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., who said he’d be OK with a two-year extension of the enhanced health care tax credits, rather than the permanent fix Democratic leaders have put forth.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said he suggested extending the current tax-credit structure, which has no income caps and reduces the required financial contribution from beneficiaries, for a year.

After 2026, the credits would phase down to their original, pre-pandemic parameters before Democrats’ 2021 expansion. The cap on eligibility would return to 400% of the federal poverty level, and personal minimum contributions would increase.

However, Rounds said he and other Republicans, including those who want to cut a deal on the exchange subsidies, aren’t ready to do a deal while the government is shut down.

“There’s no negotiations going on until we get government reopened,” Rounds said. “We’re trying to explain to our Democrat colleagues we can get this all done but get the government in operation once again. … We’ve already committed to them that we have the same desire that they do to address the issues of the (Affordable Care Act) enhanced subsidies, but that will be a negotiated settlement.”

Rounds added that Democrats “would like to get as much of a firm assurance that that is actually going to happen.”

Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., downplayed the floor conversations as “spontaneous” but said Republican senators shared a real desire to address the health care issue.

“The bottom line here is that I sensed real concern among my Republican colleagues about what happens to the people they represent if we go off the cliff on the Affordable Care Act,” he said.

Welch said he would be open to talking about changes “as long as it’s not at the expense of Americans who depend on those programs.”

Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., was also involved in the floor huddles.

“The question is, do you have a good-faith handshake? This is not the moment for a handshake,” Blunt Rochester said. “Put it on paper. Put it in writing. Show me receipts.”

For the moment, senators have largely left the Capitol as the chamber adjourned in observance of Yom Kippur, which begins at sundown. No votes are scheduled Thursday, though Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., says the chamber will return to session on Friday and remain through the weekend if needed.

A deal between the two leaders seems more likely to reopen the government than Republicans successfully convincing five more Democrats to oppose their leadership.

While still maintaining his stance that Democrats need to first agree to reopen the government, Thune said he expects to speak with Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer again to try to resolve the stalemate.

“I think we’ll talk in the next day or two. He’s indicated that he’s interested in doing that,” Thune said. “I’m not sure what we’ll achieve by that, but … things seem to be moving on their side.”

Earlier, Schumer, D-N.Y., said he’d already spoken to Thune.

“It’s a good thing that Democrats and Republicans are talking,” Schumer said. “We’ve always said they should be negotiating. This is a good thing.”

Turning up the heat

The White House’s efforts to move votes on the Democratic side, thus far, have been focused on taking a hatchet to their priorities under the cover of a shutdown.

White House budget director Russ Vought spent the morning and afternoon turning up the heat on Democrats. First, he cut off funding for infrastructure projects in blue states, starting with the Hudson Tunnel Project and Second Avenue Subway in New York City.

Vought followed up by announcing cancellation of $8 billion in clean-energy project grants in 16 states that all have consistently voted Democratic in recent years.

Moves like that were hardening opposition to any deal in some quarters, especially after Vought has been restricting the flow of funds in similar fashion all year.

“Just naked and brazen corruption. All states represented by Democrats in the Senate,” Sen. Christopher S. Murphy, D-Conn., whose state is among the 16 targeted, said on the social platform X. “Time to stiffen our spines and demand that we only fund a government that obeys the law.”

In between, Vought held a conference call with House Republicans to preview what’s to come, including mass layoffs at agencies in the next few days.

“We are going to have to lay some people off if the shutdown continues,” Vance said at the White House, without getting into specifics.

Vance didn’t rule out discussions on the health care tax credits, but he stuck to the GOP’s general script.

“We are willing to have that conversation, but I think it’s important to bracket the health care policy conversation because it is separate from the government shutdown,” Vance said.

Republicans believe their position was bolstered by a New York Times/Siena poll released Tuesday that showed 65% of registered voters surveyed believed Democrats should not shut the government down if their demands aren’t met.

And Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, a vulnerable incumbent from a district President Donald Trump carried three times, issued a blistering statement opposing his party’s strategy on Wednesday.

“This government shutdown is the result of hardball politics driven by the demands far-left groups are making for Democratic Party leaders to put on a show of their opposition to President Trump,” Golden said. “There’s room and time to negotiate. But normal policy disagreements are no reason to subject our constituents to the continued harm of this shutdown.”

_____

(Ariel Cohen, Lia DeGroot, Sandhya Raman and David Lerman contributed to this report.)

_____