Republican leaders in Congress on Wednesday dug in on pressuring Democrats to vote for a “clean” GOP-crafted stopgap to reopen the government, signaling the Senate will hold repeated votes on the bill if necessary.
The top GOP leaders from both chambers appeared on the Capitol’s west terrace Wednesday morning in a rare press conference setting that had the National Mall in the background as a video screen played old videos of Democrats criticizing government shutdowns.
“The Democrats need to pass the House’s seven-week funding bill. Until then, there’s nothing to negotiate, there’s no compromises to be had, there’s no gangs, there’s no back channels,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), chair of the Senate Republican Conference. “There’s another vote today in the Senate, and Senate Democrats will hopefully do the right thing, and if they don’t today, then they’ll have another chance later, this week and next week.”
The Senate is holding procedural votes Wednesday on competing Democratic and Republican bills to fund the government. The House-passed Republican bill got support from three Democrats in a 55-45 vote Tuesday but needs 60 votes to proceed.
Republican leaders pointed to those early cracks.
“There were three Democrats that came over and voted with us because they know the strategy is a losing one,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said.
The Democratic leaders, Sen. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), are calling on Republicans to negotiate in part on health care measures, including Affordable Care Act subsidies that expire at the end of the year.
But Republicans accuse Democrats of declining to fund the government as a way to oppose President Trump in general.
“All Chuck Schumer needs to do is get over the tantrum that he’s having with the results of the election from November, and vote yes to keep the government open,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) canceled previously scheduled votes Monday and Tuesday ahead of the shutdown deadline, in a bid to pressure Senate Democrats into accepting the Republicans’ bill.
The House is scheduled to return to vote next week on Oct. 7. Asked if he can commit to bring the House back if the House is out, Johnson said it will return.
“Yes, the House will be returning next week, and they would be here this week, except that we did our work,” Johnson said, adding: “There is nothing truly that we can do much on the floor while the lights are almost literally out, here. We have to open the government. The first, the simplest, the most important job of Congress is keeping the government working for the people.”
