Senate Democrats eye exit from record-breaking shutdown as pressure intensifies

Senate Democrats are trying to figure out their exit strategy from the ongoing government shutdown as lawmakers on both sides remain cautiously optimistic that the end is near.

At hand are offers Senate Republicans have made since nearly the beginning of the shutdown, which crept into record-breaking territory Tuesday night.

Among the options Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus mulled were a vote on expiring Obamacare subsidies, attaching a host of spending bills to the government funding extension and likely extending the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) until December or January.

Following a nearly three-hour, closed-door lunch, Schumer gave little indication as to what Democrats’ move would be. He noted that the longer-than-usual caucus lunch went well, and that Senate Democrats were “exploring all the options.”

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If enough Senate Democrats join Republicans to reopen the government and take up the GOP’s offer, they’d effectively be caving after spending 36 days entrenched in their position that they needed an ironclad deal on the expiring Obamacare premium subsidies.

Like Schumer, many Democratic lawmakers were tight-lipped about their discussions.

“It’s still a work in progress,” Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., said.

One part of the equation is tacking on a trio of spending bills, known as a minibus, that would fund military construction and the Department of Veterans Affairs, the legislative branch, and agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration.

Senate appropriators, who have been the main protagonists of increased bipartisan talks, believe that jump-starting the government funding process could be the key to ending the shutdown.

“The reason we’re in this position is that we have not passed appropriations bills,” Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., said. “So beginning to break the logjam through doing that, we think would be incredibly effective.”

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The other part of the equation is a guarantee from Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., that Senate Democrats would get a vote on a bill that dealt with the expiring Obamacare subsidies.

But that attempt is almost certain to fail, given that Senate Republicans want to see major reforms made to the program.

“It’s a universe that I think is pretty well-defined and established,” Thune said. “I’ve said this before, but the question is whether or not we’ll take ‘yes’ for an answer.”

That’s where the deep-seated lack of trust that Senate Democrats have for their counterparts across the aisle and of President Donald Trump comes in that has underscored much of the shutdown. One of their demands is to have the healthcare bill voted on by a simple, 50-vote majority, which Thune and Republicans scoffed at.

Still, Senate Democrats are eyeing more of a solution to the healthcare issue rather than the promise of a process, which Thune has given.

“I’m interested in negotiation, but a negotiation that ends up — that ends in a piece of legislation being passed,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said. “An agreement to take a vote that Republicans are guaranteeing will fail doesn’t sound like an outcome that helps regular Americans.”

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Others, particularly progressives in the Senate Democratic caucus, don’t want to see Schumer or their colleagues back down, even as federal workers and air traffic controllers go unpaid, and as the administration has wavered on funding federal food benefits despite a court order to do so.

“If the Democrats cave on this, I think it will be a betrayal to millions and millions of working families who want them to stand up and protect their healthcare benefits,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said.

Despite promises of a vote, Republicans argue they can’t predetermine the future outcome nor guarantee that a Democratic proposal would pass.

“[Thune] has said from Day 1 that he would provide them with a vote,” Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said. “What he can’t do is provide them with an outcome.”

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Rounds is one of a handful of Senate Republicans who has engaged in bipartisan talks throughout the shutdown and was hopeful that over a dozen Democrats would cross the aisle to reopen the government.

“I think they’re tired of this,” Rounds said.