Senators ended a rare Saturday session at the Capitol with no votes, no text of a three-bill “minibus” and few signs of progress toward a possible shutdown offramp.
Lawmakers are now eyeing a possible vote on Sunday, when senators will gather again to try to find a solution to the 39-day funding impasse.
Senate GOP leaders decided against holding a vote late Saturday afternoon as negotiators push forward in a bid to wrap up a deal on the three-bill “minibus” to fund Military Construction, Agriculture and the Legislative branch for all of fiscal year 2026. According to two GOP sources, Republican senators are expected to huddle over lunch on Sunday and potentially vote once again on the House-passed stopgap spending bill.
The development came hours after Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters that the upper chamber will remain in session until the shutdown impasse is broken.
“The question is whether we can have everything ready to go,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said on Saturday around lunchtime, noting that he’s been in discussions with appropriators about minibus text. “We’re getting close to having it ready.”
“[T]ext has to get out and then we’ve got to hope we have the necessary votes,” he said.
Thune also noted that bipartisan talks that took place overnight Friday into Saturday were “positive.”
The comments came a day after Senate Democrats unveiled an offer centered around a one-year extension of the enhanced health care tax credits that are set to expire at year’s end. That would run alongside a clean continuing resolution and the three-bill minibus.
Republicans wasted little time shooting down that blueprint, saying that backing any extension of those subsidies is a no-go. President Trump on Saturday waded into the fight and urged Senate GOP members to redirect funding for the tax credits from health insurers toward average Americans.
“I am recommending to Senate Republicans that the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars currently being sent to money sucking Insurance Companies in order to save the bad Healthcare provided by ObamaCare, BE SENT DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE SO THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTHCARE, and have money left over,” Trump wrote on social media.
While much of the Capitol was quiet throughout Saturday, absent party meetings and votes, much of the activity was visible on the floor as numerous GOP lawmakers spoke out against ObamaCare.
In the most notable instance, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) engaged with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) in an extended back-and-forth over the minority party’s offer, which Republicans have panned as a giveaway to insurance companies.
Moreno, who is part of Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso’s (R-Wyo.) whip team, questioned Schumer multiple times about whether the Democratic plan includes income caps and whether their plan was down in writing.
The New York Democrat said that the income cap discussion would be part of a future negotiation with Republicans. Schumer said they are willing to have that discussion after an extension is codified, while Thune has said any health care talks must only happen after the government is reopened.
“Once we pass the one year fix so people right now aren’t in difficulty, we would sit and negotiate that,” Schumer responded. “The leader has said he won’t negotiate before. We’re willing to negotiate once the credits are extended. Plain and simple, and we made that in our proposal yesterday.”
Elsewhere, Thune declined to say when the proposed short-term continuing resolution will run through. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) told reporters that consensus has emerged in the conference around a Jan. 30 end-date.
Prior to the Democratic push toward a deal featuring a one-year tax credit extension, negotiators were discussing the contours of a deal centered around a new continuing resolution, an attached minibus and a vote on a bill to extend the tax credits. Thune has been adamant that he can guarantee Democrats a “process,” but not an “outcome” that involves passing a tax credit extension.
