Senate Advances Deal to End Shutdown as Eight Democrats Break Ranks

The Senate voted 60-40 on Sunday to advance a measure that would end the government shutdown that began Oct. 1, after 14 earlier attempts had failed. Eight members of the Democratic caucus joined Republicans to move the bill forward, CBS News reported. They were Dick Durbin of Illinois, Angus King of Maine (an independent), Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen of Nevada, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Tim Kaine of Virginia, and Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire.

Shaheen, King and Hassan led the talks with Republicans, NBC News reported. The vehicle is the House-passed stopgap spending bill, which Republicans plan to amend. CBS said the changes would add three full-year spending bills, covering Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration, and the legislative branch, and would extend the stopgap funding through January rather than Nov. 21 as the House bill provided. The package would also reverse shutdown-related layoff notices at federal agencies.

The price for Democratic votes was a promise rather than a policy. Senate Republican leaders agreed to hold a vote in December, by the end of the second week of the month according to CBS, on extending the enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits, which expire at the end of the year, but the deal does not extend them, according to both outlets. “It’s a guaranteed vote, not a guaranteed outcome,” Kaine said, CBS reported. King called the agreement “a victory” and put the odds of extending the credits at “maybe 50 percent,” NBC reported. The House has made no such promise, NBC reported.

Majority Leader John Thune said “the deal is coming together” and warned that the process “can drag on indefinitely if you allow it to,” CBS reported. Senators were due back at 11 a.m. Monday; any senator can slow the process, so more procedural votes are likely before final passage.

Many Democrats are angry. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer voted no, arguing the bill does not address rising health care costs. “However this vote turns out, this fight will and must continue,” he said, according to CBS. NBC reported that Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Chris Murphy criticized the agreement, and that progressive groups and some Democratic candidates called for Schumer to step down as leader. Democrats had refused for weeks to vote to reopen the government without an extension of the credits.

Not every Democrat was critical. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries praised Schumer and most Senate Democrats for waging “a valiant fight,” NBC reported.

The House must still approve the Senate-amended bill before it goes to President Trump. House members were told to expect votes this week with 36 hours’ notice, CBS reported. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said House Democrats were not prepared to support “a promise, a wing and a prayer” on the tax credits, CBS reported, leaving their support uncertain.