The state of play within the Senate forward of the shutdown deadline
Earlier this month, the GOP-controlled Home handed a invoice referred to as a unbroken decision that may prolong present funding ranges for seven weeks and thus keep away from a shutdown. However the invoice fell brief within the Senate, the place 60 votes had been wanted. Republicans management 53 seats within the higher chamber, which means they want Democratic votes to get the invoice over the end line.
However Senate Democrats seem principally united in opposing the invoice, arguing Republicans ought to have negotiated with them to search out an final result they might assist. Senators are returning to the Capitol on Monday afternoon, the place they’re set to convene at 3 p.m. to seek for a path ahead.
Thune advised NBC that whether or not the federal government shuts down is “completely as much as the Democrats,” outlining that “there’s a invoice sitting on the desk within the Senate proper now” that the Home handed that may maintain the federal government open. He stated the persevering with decision may get one other vote this week.
“This choice, in my judgment at this time limit, is as much as a handful of Democrats,” Thune stated. “We want eight Democrats to go it by means of the Senate.”
Congressional leaders set to meet with Trump at White House at 3 p.m.
The top four congressional leaders — Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — are set to meet with the president at the White House around 3 p.m.
The meeting comes as Democrats have for weeks sought to get Republicans to the negotiating table. Schumer told NBC on Sunday that after Mr. Trump canceled a meeting with the leaders last week, he called Thune on Friday and urged him to get the leaders together for a meeting. The New York Democrat called the meeting a “first step,” saying “we need a serious negotiation.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar says “Republicans have created a health care crisis”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, told “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sunday that “Democrats are united in pushing” for an extension of expiring health insurance subsidies, accusing Republicans of creating a “health care crisis.”
“My constituents, Americans, are standing on a cliff right now with these insurance premium increases that are upon them,” Klobuchar said. “So, Democrats are united in pushing on this and saying, ‘look, let us do something about this crisis before it is too late.”
Klobuchar, a member of Senate Democratic leadership, outlined that without the extension of the health insurance subsidies, premiums could increase by an estimated 75%. And she stressed that addressing the subsidies is a “now thing.”
“It’s not a December thing. It’s not a January thing. It’s not an offramp,” Klobuchar said. “It is something we have to get done now.”
Trump: “I just don’t know how we are going to solve this issue”
Mr. Trump told CBS News on Sunday that “I just don’t know how we are going to solve this issue.” He indicated that a shutdown is likely unless Democrats back down from their negotiating position.
The president cast the Democrats’ current demands, which have centered on extending Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies, as ill-advised. He said if the Democrats want to discuss health care, they should work with him to prevent undocumented migrants from accessing public benefits.
“The Democrats, incredibly, want to keep their old policies of open borders and we’re not going to have it. We’re not going to allow it,” Mr. Trump said. He added that any possible health care negotiations must address immigration and border-related matters, otherwise, “It’s just not acceptable for us.”
Read more here.
