Overview
- Senate Democrats formally proposed reopening the government with a clean stopgap bill paired with a one-year extension of Affordable Care Act premium tax credits and a bipartisan committee to pursue longer-term reforms.
- Republican leaders labeled the offer a nonstarter and maintained that policy talks on health care can occur only after the government is funded, with no guarantee of House action on an eventual subsidy extension.
- A GOP measure to pay excepted federal workers during the shutdown failed to clear the 60-vote threshold, drawing 53 votes as three Democrats joined Republicans in support.
- President Donald Trump urged senators to remain in Washington and called for ending the filibuster to pass a funding plan, a step Republican senators have resisted.
- Operational strains are mounting, with FAA-ordered flight reductions already in place and potential cuts up to 20% warned, alongside unpaid federal workers and delayed SNAP benefits adding to public pressure.