The longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history could finally end this week. KHJ News Washington DC correspondent Matt Kaye reports…
Senate Republicans finally secured the eight votes they needed—from seven Democrats and one Independent—to gain the 60-vote supermajority needed to advance a bill to reopen the government.
But it was a torturous 40-day fight, with 14-failed ballots ahead of Sunday night’s stalemate-breaking vote on a deal that peeled off the needed Democrats.
Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer vowed to carry on the fight to extend expiring enhanced Obamacare insurance subsidies…
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[Transc.] Schumer: “Democrats must fight because millions of families will lose healthcare coverage…we must fight because children who are dying of cancer will not get healthcare coverage…we must fight because a senior citizen cannot afford to pay 25-thousand dollars a year just for health insurance…we must fight to keep millions from financial ruin.”
Majority Leader John Thune argued he’d repeatedly offered Democrats a healthcare vote, but only after the government reopened. And with so many suffering from the shutdown…
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[Transc.] Thune: “I don’t need to go over all the reasons why we need to get the government open as soon as possible. From the truly precarious situation we are in with regard to air travel, to the fact that our staffs have been working without pay for a full 40-days now, all of us, Republicans and Democrats, know that the time to act is now.”
Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata called on the Senate and House to finish funding the government, calling it “a positive development” that the military, air traffic controllers, and others will soon be paid.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said “the long national nightmare is finally coming to an end, urging House members to prepare “right now” to start returning to D.C., even before the final Senate vote.
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[Transc.] Johnson: “At the very moment that they do that final vote, I will call all House members to return to Washington as quickly as possible. We’ll give a 36-hour formal and official notice, so that we can vote as soon as possible to pass the amended CR bill and get it to the president’s desk.”
The Senate-amended continuing resolution would extend funding to January 30 and package it with three full-year spending bills, including USDA fully funding food stamps, the VA, and Congress.
The troops, including thousands from American Samoa, and civilian federal workers would get paid.
Senate Democrats would get a separate December vote on their main demand to extend expiring pandemic-era Obamacare credits, though House Speaker Johnson won’t promise a House vote.
