WASHINGTON (AP) — As we enter the third week of the government shutdown, Democrats say they will not be intimidated or intimidated by President Donald Trump’s efforts to lay off thousands of federal workers or his threats of more layoffs.
Instead, Democrats appear emboldened and showing no signs of relenting as they returned to Washington from their home states this week and twice more rejected a Republican government reopening bill. Wednesday’s vote was the ninth time the GOP plan has failed.
“What people are saying is you have to stop the carnage,” said Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, describing what he heard from his constituents, including federal workers, as he toured his state over the weekend. “And you don’t stop it by giving in.”
Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz said the firings were “quite a lot of turmoil” and predicted they would ultimately be overturned in court or otherwise reversed. This happened on Wednesday, when a federal judge in California temporarily ordered the government to stop the layoffs.
New York Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that the firings were a “misguided attempt” to influence Democratic votes. His House counterpart, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, said the administration’s “intimidation tactics are not working. And will continue to fail.”
Democratic senators say they are instead hearing from voters about health insurance subsidies that expire at the end of the year, the issue that has put the party at the center of the fight against the shutdown.
Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware said the impact of expiring health insurance subsidies for millions of people and Medicaid cuts passed by Republicans earlier this year “far outweighs” any federal worker layoffs threatened by the administration.
Republicans are also confident in their strategy of not negotiating health care subsidies until Democrats give them the votes to reopen the government. There was no sign of movement on either side.
“We are heading into one of the longest lockdowns in American history,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said earlier this week.
Moderate Democrats aren’t budging
In the first hours of the lockdown, which began at 12:01 a.m. EDT on October 1, it was not clear how long Democrats would hold out.
A group of moderate Democrats who voted against the GOP bill immediately began private, informal discussions with Republicans. Republican lawmakers were hoping enough Democrats would quickly change their votes to end a filibuster and pass the spending bill with the required 60 votes.
But the cross-party talks about the expiring health subsidies have so far dragged on without a solution. Two weeks later, moderates, including Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Gary Peters of Michigan, are still voting no.
“Nothing about a government shutdown requires this or gives them new power to carry out mass layoffs,” Peters said after White House budget director Russell Vought announced the layoffs had begun Friday.
Lawmakers in the D.C. area see benefits in the shutdown
Another key group of Democrats getting involved are lawmakers like Kaine, who represent millions of federal workers in Virginia and Maryland. Kaine said the shutdown followed “nine months of punitive behavior” as the Republican president made cuts to federal agencies “and everyone knows who is responsible.”
“Donald Trump is at war with his own workforce, and we don’t reward CEOs who hate their own employees,” Kaine said.
At a news conference Tuesday, Democratic lawmakers from Maryland and Virginia, along with supportive federal workers, called on Republicans to come to the negotiating table.
“The message we have today is very simple,” said Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. “Donald Trump and Russ Vought stop attacking federal workers, stop attacking the American people and begin negotiating to reopen the federal government and address the looming health crisis that lies ahead.”
Mass layoffs and a judge’s order to stop it
In a court filing Friday, the White House Office of Management and Budget said well over 4,000 federal employees across eight departments and agencies would be laid off in connection with the shutdown.
On Tuesday, Trump said his administration was using the shutdown to target federal programs that Democrats like and “in many cases they will never come back.”
“We are shutting down Democratic programs we disagree with and they will never be reopened,” he said.
But U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco said Wednesday that the cuts appeared to be politically motivated and carried out without much thought. She issued an injunction because unions had tried to block the cuts, saying she believed the evidence would ultimately show they were illegal.
“It is a human cost that cannot be tolerated,” she said.
More votes in the Senate
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., maintained that Republicans would not negotiate until Democrats reopened the government. “We are willing to have a conversation about any other issues they want to talk about,” he said Wednesday, but not until then.
Thune has repeatedly said the layoffs are “a situation that could be completely avoided.”
While Democrats again rejected GOP legislation to reopen the government, Republicans announced additional votes on individual spending bills, starting Thursday with the defense bill that would fund military pay. It was unclear whether Democrats would support it.
___
AP congressional correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
