Senators ended a rare Saturday session at the Capitol with no vote, no reading of the three-bill “minibus” and few signs of progress toward a potential shutdown officiating.
Lawmakers are now eyeing a possible vote on Sunday, when senators will reconvene to try to find a solution to the 39-day funding impasse.
Senate GOP leaders decided not to vote Saturday afternoon as negotiators try to advance a deal on a three-bill “minibus” to fund military construction, agriculture and the legislative branch through fiscal year 2026. Republican senators are expected to talk over lunch Sunday and potentially vote once again on the House-passed stopgap spending bill, according to two GOP sources.
The development came hours after Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters that the upper chamber’s session would continue. 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 at lunch Saturday, noting that he is in discussions with appropriators about the minibus text. “We’re getting closer to having it ready.”
,[T]“The expansion has to go out and then we have to hope we have the necessary votes,” he said.
Thune also said bipartisan talks held overnight Friday into Saturday were “positive.”
The comments came a day after the Senate Democrats unveiled a proposal It focuses on a one-year extension of the enhanced health care tax credit that is set to expire at the end of the year. It will run with a clean continuing resolution and a three-bill minibus.
Republicans wasted little time shoot that blueprintHaving said that, it is unacceptable to support any extension of those subsidies. President Trump jumped into the fight on Saturday and urged Senate GOP members to redirect money for tax credits from health insurers to average Americans.
“I am recommending to Senate Republicans that the hundreds of billions of dollars currently being sent to money-sucking insurance companies to bail out the poor health care provided by Obamacare be sent directly to people so they can buy their own, much better, health care and have money left over,” Trump wrote on social media.
While much of the Capitol was quiet Saturday, with party meetings and votes absent, most of the activity was visible on the floor as several GOP lawmakers spoke out against Obamacare.
In the most notable example, Senator Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) negotiated at length with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer (NY) over the minority party’s offer, which Republicans have offered as a gift to insurance companies.
Moreno, who is part of Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.)’s whip team, questioned Schumer several times about whether the Democratic plan included an income limit and whether his plan was as written.
The New York Democrat said discussions on income limits would be part of future negotiations with Republicans. Schumer said he is willing to have that discussion after an extension is codified, while Thune has said any health care talks should happen after the government reopens.
Schumer responded, “Once we get past the one-year limit so that people are not in hardship right now, we will sit down and negotiate it.” “The leader has said he will not negotiate first. We are ready to negotiate after the credit is extended. Clear and simple, and we put this in our proposal yesterday.”
Elsewhere, Thune declined to say when the proposed short-term sustainable solution would be completed. Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) told reporters that the conference reached a consensus around the January 30 expiration date.
Ahead of Democratic pressure toward a deal featuring a one-year tax credit extension, negotiators were discussing the outlines of a deal centered around a new continuing resolution, an enclosed minibus and a vote on a bill to extend the tax credit. Thune has been adamant that he can guarantee Democrats a “process”, but not an “outcome”, including passing the tax credit extension.
