Senators ended a rare Saturday session at the Capitol with no votes, no text for a three-bill “minibus” and no sign of progress toward a possible shutdown.
Lawmakers are now considering a possible vote on Sunday when senators will reconvene to find a solution to the 39-day funding crisis.
Senate GOP leaders decided against a vote delayed Saturday afternoon as negotiators push forward a “minibus” deal with three bills to fund military construction, agriculture and the Legislature for the entire 2026 fiscal year. Republican senators are expected to sit together over lunch Sunday and possibly vote again on the stopgap bill passed by the House, according to two GOP sources.
The development came hours after Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters that the upper house would remain in session until the dead end is broken when shutting down.
“The question is whether we can have everything ready to go,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said around noon Saturday, noting that he had spoken to appropriators about the minibus text. “We’re close to having it finished.”
“[T]ext has to go and then we have to hope that we have the necessary votes,” he said.
Thune also noted that the cross-party talks that took place on Friday night were “positive.”
The comments came a day after the Senate floor The Democrats presented an offer The focus is a one-year extension of expanded health care tax credits, which are set to expire at the end of the year. That would go hand in hand with a neat continuation solution and the three-banknote minibus.
Republicans wasted little time Shoot this blueprintHe said supporting an expansion of these subsidies is a no-go. President Trump entered the fray on Saturday, calling on Republican members of the Senate to redirect tax credit funding from health insurers to average Americans.
“I recommend to Senate Republicans that the hundreds of billions of dollars currently being sent to money-sucking insurance companies to bail out poor health care through ObamaCare BE SENT DIRECTLY to the 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 throughout Saturday due to the absence of party meetings and voting, much of the activity on the ground was perceptible as scores of Republican lawmakers spoke out against ObamaCare.
In the most notable case, Senator Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) engaged in a lengthy dispute with Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer (NY) over the minority party’s offer, which Republicans viewed as a giveaway to insurance companies.
Moreno, who is part of Senate Majority Leader John Barrasso’s (R-Wyo.) whip team, questioned Schumer several times about whether the Democrats’ plan includes income caps and whether their plan is in writing.
The New York Democrat said discussion of the income cap will be part of future negotiations with Republicans. Schumer said they would be willing to have that discussion after an extension is codified, while Thune said discussions on health issues should not take place until after the government reopens.
“Once we get the one-year fix so that people aren’t in trouble now, we’ll sit down and negotiate it,” Schumer responded. “The leader has said he will not negotiate before then. We are ready to negotiate as soon as the loans are extended. Plain and simple, and that’s what we did in our proposal yesterday.”
Elsewhere, Thune did not want to say when the proposed short-term continuation solution would be implemented. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) told reporters that a consensus had emerged in the conference on the Jan. 30 end date.
Before Democrats pushed for a deal with a one-year extension of the tax credits, negotiators discussed the outlines of a deal that focused on a fresh continuing resolution, a connected van and a vote on a bill to extend the tax credits. Thune insisted he could guarantee Democrats a “process” but not an “outcome” that includes passage of a tax credit extension.
