Summary
- House Republican leaders urged unity in the shutdown fight.
- Members support Speaker Mike Johnson's move to cancel votes.
- Cancellation aims to pressure Senate Democrats into funding bill approval.
However, if senators agree that the House must go back to Washington and enact a compromise, there is some flexibility in the schedule. According to sources on the conversation, leaders stated that they would give members at least 48 hours' notice before calling them back.
However, Republicans now feel they are winning the budget battle and see no need to call House members back to Washington to divert attention from Senate business.
“The House will come back into session and do its work as soon as [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer ([D-N.Y.)] allows us to reopen the government,”
Johnson said in a press conference on Friday.
Senate Democrats voted against a House-passed, "clean" continuing resolution to finance the government through November 21 for the fourth time on Friday, meaning the government will continue to be shut down into next week.
Democrats have pushed Republicans to engage in health care policy negotiations, such as extending the expanded subsidies from the Affordable Care Act that expire at the end of the year, but their counterproposal has also failed time and time again.
Republicans have stated that until the government is open, they will not engage in negotiations over health care subsidies.
Despite the lack of scheduled votes, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) stated on Friday that he would send Democrats to Washington the following week.
“We can’t make commitments or promises on the COVID subsidies, because that’s not something that we can guarantee that there are the votes there to do,”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Friday.
“What I said is, I’m hoping to have a conversation with our Democrat colleagues about how to address that issue … But that can’t happen while the government is shut down.”
“Speaker Johnson has canceled votes next week so House Republicans can continue their vacation, depriving Americans of affordable healthcare, preventing the swearing-in of Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva and stopping the release of the Epstein Files,”
Jeffries said.
“Meanwhile, the government remains closed and healthcare costs are going up for millions of Americans,”
he continued.
“It’s time for Republicans to get back to work so we can reopen the government, cancel the cuts, lower the cost and save healthcare.”
How are Senate Democrats responding to Johnson's tactic?
Democrats blame Republicans for the shutdown because they designed and passed a funding bill without any Democratic input and refuse to negotiate on one of the most salient issues - whether to extend health insurance subsidies for millions of Americans under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Democrats considered Johnson's refusal to negotiate on health care matters to be irresponsible, saying it will negatively impact millions of Americans who rely on the subsidies.
Notably, Democrats in the Senate argued that reopening the government is a bipartisan issue that includes protections for vulnerable populations, unlike the GOP's short-term funding plan.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and others expressed that Democrats are committed to reopening the government, but they won't agree to ultimatums that undermine essential health care or programs.