The Senate voted against reopening the federal government for the 11th time on Monday, pushing the shutdown to the three-week mark as both sides were divided and unable to break the impasse.
The chamber voted 50-43 in favor of the House-passed continuing resolution to fund the government through the end of November. 60 votes were needed for adoption.
Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Angus King (I-Maine) once again crossed party lines and sided with Republicans. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who previously voted for the measure, did not vote Monday.
Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) was the only Republican senator in the Senate to vote no.
The reckoning came days after the “No Kings” rallies in Washington and across the country, with Republicans hoping a deal could be reached with those events in the rearview mirror.
However, there remains little sign that the standoff will resolve in the near future, which is likely to see it extend into the fourth week and possibly into November.
Speaking Monday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Democrats’ position “remains the same.”
“We’re in another week of Donald Trump’s government shutdown, and Republicans seem happy not to work, happy not to negotiate, and happy to see health care premiums go up for over 20 million working and middle-class Americans,” Schumer said.
“Our country is facing a health catastrophe, and Republicans will either vacation or hold pep rallies at the White House this week,” Schumer said, referring to the House’s failure to meet and President Trump’s planned lunch with the Senate GOP. “Government workers have to work without getting paid, but Republicans in the House of Representatives are getting paid without working.”
At the center of the dispute was Democrats’ insistence on measures to extend expiring expanded health care subsidies as a condition for reopening the government, with Republicans unwilling or unable to make such promises.
Republican leaders have maintained that discussions on the tax credits cannot be had until the shutdown ends.
“It is truly astonishing how a program created by Democrats and tax credits they wanted to abandon have now become a crisis for Republicans,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said in his speech. “In fact, Republicans never had anything to do with it.”
“The Democrats created ObamaCare alone. They created the expanded tax credits – alone. And they chose an expiration date for those tax credits – alone,” he continued. “Democrats are solely – solely – responsible for the ObamaCare tax credit cliff, and yet they are trying to blame this disaster on Republicans while simultaneously asking Republicans to bail them out.”
“It’s kind of ironic really,” he added.
The Senate is expected to next vote on the emergency funding bill on Wednesday.
