WASHINGTON ― As the pain of the longest-ever full government shutdown becomes more acute, and hundreds of thousands of federal workers and military members go without paychecks, the paralyzed U.S. Senate is getting antsy.
The leadership of both parties remains dug in four weeks into the shutdown, but rank-and-file members are looking for possible off-ramps and ways to lessen the effects on Americans as the situation becomes more dire, including travel delays at airports due to staffing shortages and growing lines at food banks across the country.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) over the weekend suggested President Donald Trump finally get involved by creating a bipartisan commission to hammer out a deal that would reopen the government and address expiring subsidies for millions of people who get their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. Trump has mostly been disengaged from the crisis, refusing to sit down and talk with Democrats until they agree to fund the government. He left town over the weekend for a trip to Asia and isn’t scheduled to return until later this week.
“I suggest President Trump come forward, name three Republicans and three Democrats in the Senate to an official commission to figure this out over a one-month period and come back with a solution,” Paul said on “Fox News Sunday.” “But in exchange for that, I think the Democrats need to open the government for a month, and then we need to pay the workers, pay our soldiers, and then I think we could come to a solution ― but it has to be something different, it can’t be the same old, same old.”
Republicans want to see major reforms to Obamacare, including its enhanced subsidies, which help protect millions of Americans from high premiums. Potential changes being discussed by the GOP include a more stringent income cap, requiring a minimum out-of-pocket premium, or gradually winding down the tax credits.
One flaw with this idea is that bipartisan commissions don’t often solve anything. They are formed every Congress, usually to tackle an intractable issue by making recommendations, some of which ultimately get adopted, most of which do not. But any kind of bipartisan negotiation with Trump’s involvement would be progress at this point, and could produce some movement.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), meanwhile, is calling on her leadership to keep the chamber in session over the weekend ― even if it means taking more doomed votes to reopen the government again and again and just “staring at” each other. During the shutdown, the Senate has been running on its typical weekly schedule, which begins Monday afternoon and ends Thursday afternoon.
“We’re pretending that everything is OK. We’re pretending that people are not being impacted by this shutdown,” Murkowski said in a speech on Monday.
“I don’t think we should be going home and just behaving as if this was another week in the United States Senate. When we leave, we send the message it’s just business as usual. Then people whose lives are being impacted right now, they think we don’t get it,” she continued.
Murkowski noted that U.S. Capitol Police officers and other Senate support staff are going unpaid during the shutdown, unlike members of Congress, and still showing up for work.
But the idea of weekend sessions has been shot down repeatedly by Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), who blamed Democrats for refusing to budge.
“If it makes any difference, I would,” Thune told reporters earlier this month. “If they’re just gonna continue to vote down keeping the government open, I’m not sure what purpose that’ll serve.”
Republicans have also introduced “rifle shot” bills that would allow funding to flow to certain government programs amid the shutdown. That includes legislation from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that would pay air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration agents, a bill from Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) to pay essential federal workers, and a measure from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) that would prevent millions of Americans from losing food aid when the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is due to run out of money Saturday. Notably, Hawley’s bill has bipartisan support after Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) signed on.
But the White House opposes that strategy, and Thune is skeptical about it as well, according to Punchbowl News, because it would take the pressure off Democrats to end the shutdown. Republicans believe Democrats will soon fold, pointing to a statement from the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union for federal workers, urging Congress on Monday to pass a “clean” funding bill to end the government shutdown and undercutting Democrats’ position that any deal include health insurance subsidies and protections for the power of Congress to appropriate and direct government spending.
But Democrats were unmoved on Monday by AFGE’s statement. Some downplayed its effect on the caucus while others, like Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), acknowledged it has “a lot of impact.” New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat, also didn’t appear to budge.
In a speech on the Senate floor, Schumer criticized Trump for dancing upon landing at the airport in Malaysia over the weekend as millions of people faced rising health insurance premiums back home.
“Starting this Saturday, tens of millions of Americans face the specter of financial crisis, all while Donald Trump is dancing on the tarmac in Malaysia,” Schumer said. “Donald Trump may be having a nice time abroad, but people here at home are dreading — dreading — open enrollment.