Shutdown like it’s 1995.
The ongoing government shutdown became the second-longest in US history Wednesday, surpassing the 1995-1996 lapse in federal funding as it dragged into day 22 with no end in sight.
Senate Democrats have blocked Republican attempts to reopen the government 11 times since Oct. 1, when all but three members of the caucus voted against moving forward with a House-passed measure to keep federal departments and agencies funded at current levels through Nov. 21.
The Senate will gavel in at 10 a.m. Wednesday to try yet again to end the shutdown, as Democratic leaders demand a meeting with President Trump.
“[House Minority Leader] Hakeem [Jeffries] and I reached out to the president today and urged him to sit down and negotiate with us to resolve the health care crisis, address it and end the Trump shutdown,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told reporters Tuesday. “We urged him to meet with us, and we said we’ll set up an appointment with him any time, any place before he leaves.”
However, House Speaker Mike Johnson maintains that no high-level meeting will take place until Democrats vote to reopen the government.
“[Senate Majority] Leader [John] Thune and I visited with President Trump this afternoon and he confirmed he is ready and willing for the three of us to meet with Leader Jeffries and Senator Schumer as soon as Schumer reopens the government,” Johnson (R-La.) wrote on X Wednesday.
At the White House, where Trump held a Rose Garden gathering for congressional Republicans, Thune (R-S.D.) similarly signaled that he is not interested in negotiating with Democrats.
“I don’t know what there is to negotiate,” Thune told reporters. “Open up the government first.”
The Senate majority leader indicated that his strategy will be to continue to call votes on the seven-week stopgap funding bill, despite the Democratic opposition to it.
“We are going to keep voting to open up the government, and eventually the Democrats, hopefully sooner or later, are going to come around,” Thune said.
Meanwhile, Trump likened Democrats’ refusal to move forward with a clean continuing resolution to an extortion attempt.
“We will not be extorted on this crazy plot of theirs,” the president said at the White House gathering.
“Chuck Schumer and the Senate Democrats need to vote for the clean bipartisan [continuing resolution] and reopen our government — it’s got to be reopened right now,” Trump demanded.
Schumer (D-NY) has insisted Republicans include an extension of enhanced pandemic health insurance subsidies for about 22 million people who bought policies on Obamacare Affordable Care Act exchanges in their legislative proposal to reopen the government.
The White House argued that the benefits don’t expire until Dec. 31, allowing time for a negotiation once the government is back up and running.
The now third-longest shutdown in history began on Dec. 16, 1995, and ended on Jan. 6, 1996.
It was preceded by a shorter, six-day shutdown in November 1995, and triggered when then-President Bill Clinton vetoed a budget with spending cuts passed by the GOP-controlled House and Senate.
Roughly 750,000 federal workers have been furloughed amid the current shutdown and the Trump administration has moved to permanently lay off thousands.
If the shutdown continues, federal workers will miss their first full paychecks on Friday and members of the armed forces are at risk of not getting paid the following week, on Oct. 31.
The 35-day-long government shutdown of 2018-2019, which occurred during Trump’s first term, is the longest in US history.
