The government shutdown is entering its fifth week as the Senate remains gridlocked over a short-term funding bill that would end it. The shutdown began after Congress failed to finish its annual appropriations work by the September 30th deadline. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed legislation - the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act (HR 5371) - on September 19 to give lawmakers more time to fund the government. But the Republican-controlled Senate has been unable to approve the measure.
The Senate has voted 13 times on HR 5371, which would extend last year’s funding levels until November 21. However, the Senate failed to advance the measure each time because the chamber’s 53 Republicans need at least seven Democrats to join them to pass the short-term funding bill under Senate rules. And Democrats oppose HR 5371 because it does not extend enhanced premium subsidies for healthcare plans offered under the Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148) that are scheduled to expire at the end of the year.
Democrats want to use the ongoing shutdown as leverage to force Republicans - and President Trump - to the negotiating table. But Republicans insist that they will not negotiate with Democrats as long as the government remains closed. Instead, Majority Leader John Thune, R-SD, blamed Democrats for the stalemate on the Senate floor. “When they say that…Republicans are responsible for shutting the government down, it really defies facts. It defies history. It defies reality because as everybody who has been around here knows, we have now voted 13 times…on [HR 5371] that would open up the government.”
