Senate Republicans Reject Democrats’ Latest Offer to End Shutdown

The Washington Post

11:20 JST, November 8, 2025

Senate Democrats pitched a new proposal Friday to end the government shutdown that Republicans immediately rejected, leaving the two sides no closer to resolving the standoff after a week of bipartisan negotiations.

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) said his caucus would vote for legislation to reopen the government if it also extends Affordable Care Act subsidies for one year. The subsidies are set to expire at the end of this year. The proposal would also create a bipartisan committee to work through long-term revisions to the subsidies that could be implemented before next year’s open enrollment period.

The offer is “a very simple compromise,” Schumer said, flanked on the Senate floor by most of the chamber’s Democrats. He argued it respects Republicans’ insistence that they won’t negotiate on health care policy while the government is closed.

“That’s not a negotiation. It’s an extension of current law, something we do all the time around here,” Schumer said. “This proposal reopens the government and ensures working families who are shopping right now for their health care get certainty and financial relief.”

Republicans did not see the offer as a compromise. While some Senate Republicans have said they are open to extending the subsidies – which Democrats created during the Biden administration – many of them don’t want to do so unless lawmakers overhaul the program to address fraud and bar any health insurance plan that is purchased using the subsidies from covering abortion. Other Republicans are opposed to extending the subsidies at all.

“There’s no way that our conference is going to vote for what Chuck proposed,” Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-Louisiana) told reporters, referring to Schumer.

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) dismissed the new proposal, posting on X that Democrats’ demand to extend the subsidies counts as “negotiation – something that can only take place after the government reopens.” Also on X, multiple blocs of House Republicans scoffed at the offer.

The offer caps a tumultuous week in which some Senate Democrats began coalescing around a path to reopen the government that Republicans would support, only to draw back after sweeping electoral victories Tuesday.

An agreement had been emerging earlier this week that appealed to about a dozen Senate Democrats – more than enough to end the shutdown, now the longest in American history. It would have advanced an existing proposal to temporarily fund the government, which would later be tweaked to add three full-year spending bills for specific agencies. That package would come with a guarantee of a future Senate vote on a policy to extend the ACA subsidies.

The new plan was spearheaded by Sen. Gary Peters (D-Michigan,) who has been part of negotiations on potential paths forward for weeks, after hours of internal discussions Thursday. The caucus determined that after Tuesday’s elections, it was no longer “viable” to go along with the earlier negotiations, according to a Democratic aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private talks. Peters floated the new offer as an alternative.

Democrats framed the offer as a concession after proposing in September that Congress make the subsidies permanent, along with other policy demands.

“Look, if I had my way, we would be making these enhanced premium tax credits for working families permanent,” Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) said Friday on the Senate floor. “But I understand that we can’t get everything that we want.”

But Thune has ruled out including an extension of the subsidies or any other Democratic policy proposals in legislation to fund the government. He has pointed out that the funding bill does not include any Republicans policies, either.

Instead, Thune has offered to hold a vote on extending the subsidies once Democrats vote to reopen the government. Democrats have not taken him up on it in part because House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) has not made a similar promise – and President Donald Trump has not committed to signing such a bill.

“We trust Leader Thune, we trust our Republican colleagues,” Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vermont) said Friday on the Senate floor. “But what happens after it goes out of the Senate? We have no guarantee whatsoever it will be taken up in the House – at all.”

Trump posted Friday afternoon on social media that the Senate should stay in Washington until lawmakers reach a deal to end the shutdown – and if they can’t, that the GOP should abolish the Senate filibuster, which would let Republicans reopen the government on their own. The president has made that demand several times this week, but it doesn’t appear to have enough support to pass.

Democrats swept elections in New Jersey, Virginia and New York City on Tuesday. President Donald Trump told Senate Republicans the shutdown was “a big factor” in their weak showing. The victories emboldened the Senate Democrats who have been pushing their colleagues to stay the course and prompted some of those open to a deal to reconsider whether they could move Republicans to negotiate further.

“Tuesday was a watershed moment,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut), who has argued that a vote on ACA subsidies isn’t enough. “The country, first and foremost, was making a referendum on Donald Trump’s corruption and his mishandling of the economy. But they were also making a statement about this fight.”

Some Republicans said they were optimistic that a handful of Senate Democrats who have been negotiating with the GOP on how to end the shutdown would be willing to strike a deal that Republicans could accept.

“The hope is that there are five to 10 Democrats who will still come around and be reasonable,” Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Missouri) told reporters after Democrats pitched their latest offer.

The Senate instead took a procedural vote Friday on a bill from Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) to pay federal workers who are required to work during a government shutdown. The bill was defeated 53-43, as it failed to get the 60 votes necessary to advance. Even if the Senate eventually passes that bill, it would not become law unless the House, which is not in session, also passes it.

Sens. Raphael G. Warnock (Georgia) and Jon Ossoff (Georgia) were the only Democrats to vote for the bill, along with all of the chamber’s Republicans who were present. Democrats have argued that the bill leaves too much room for the Trump administration to determine which federal workers will be paid and which will not.

Thune has repeatedly offered Democrats a commitment to vote on a policy of their choosing to extend ACA subsidies. Republicans disagree over how and whether to extend the subsidies, though, so many Democrats have been hesitant to vote to reopen without an agreed-upon policy that they know the GOP will also support.

As the shutdown has dragged on – threatening food aid, depriving federal workers of paychecks and creating staffing shortages at airports – the commitment to vote has become more appealing.

But Thursday morning, Johnson told reporters that he would not commit to holding a vote on health care subsidies in his chamber.

“I’m not promising anybody anything. I’m going to let this process play out,” he said.