Senate Democrats ensure government shutdown continues into next week

Senate Democrats for the 10th time blocked Republican attempts to reopen the government and ensured the shutdown would continue next week.

That’s because after a final series of votes later Thursday, lawmakers will leave Washington, D.C., for another long weekend after only three short days in congress.

Neither Republicans nor Democrats are willing to back down from their entrenched positions, and talks between the two sides, though largely informal, have begun to fizzle.

Republicans push to pay troops and reopen government, with Democrats refusing

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is determined to stay on the same course of action to continue putting the House-passed Continuing Resolution (CR), which will reopen the government until November 21, to votes again and again.

Although some in the GOP are considering a new expiration date for the bill, that would require the House, which has been out of session for about a month, to come back and pass a new date.

While Thune and Republicans insist their plan is the only way to end the shutdown, now on the 16th day, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and the Senate Democratic Caucus still want to reach an agreement on ending support for Obamacare — and they want President Donald Trump directly involved in the negotiations.

“We are ready, as I said, to have conversations about all the other issues they want to talk about,” Thune said. “But that can’t happen while they hold the federal government and all of these federal employees, our troops, our air traffic controllers, our TSA agents and our Border Patrol officials hostage. Open up the government.”

Republicans are angry that Democrats blocked the GOP’s ninth attempt to reopen the government

Senate Majority Leader John Thune wants to reignite government funding, but Senate Democrats appear unwilling to support his efforts. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

He continued: “Every day that this continues, the problems get worse for federal employees and ordinary Americans.” He added: “Chuck Schumer may think that every day gets better for them politically, but I can tell you that this is not the experience of the American people.”

When asked if he would concede to Democrats’ demands as the shutdown continues, Schumer equivocated and responded that he would not negotiate in front of the public eye.

“The bottom line is [Republicans] “You won’t even negotiate with us,” Schumer said. “So this is a premature question. But of course I will not negotiate publicly. We need to address the crisis we are in, and that is the right word, the American people.”

However, Sen. Markwayne Mullen, R-Oklahoma, said Republicans were not working on a support proposal to present to Democrats, and noted that talks between the two parties “aren’t really happening” anymore.

When asked if it would be possible to get an extension of credits before the Nov. 1 open enrollment date, he said, “I don’t think there’s a way to do that.”

“And I think if this isn’t done by Christmas, it will become a political issue,” Mullen said. “But maybe you can push it to January, to February, if you want, but we’re facing, you know, everyone’s primaries, from the Democratic primaries to the Republican primaries, and it becomes a political issue, because unfortunately, health care is political.”

Republicans eye new funding battle as shutdown crisis continues

Senator John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania, walks to vote at the US Capitol in Washington, October 8, 2025. (Kevin Deitch/Getty Images)

Republicans are also trying to reignite the Senate appropriations process as the shutdown continues. Thune held a procedural vote later Thursday on the Senate’s defense spending bill, which would, among other things, fund military salaries.

Whether Democrats support the spending bill after spending months demanding a bipartisan government funding process remains an open question — many argued after their closed-door meeting Wednesday that they don’t know exactly what Republicans will put on the floor and consider voting on it moot.

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As with most of the past 10 attempts to send the House-passed Republican resolution to Trump’s desk, the same trio of Democratic caucus members, Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Katherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada, and Angus King, D-Maine, voted for Senate Republicans.

Fetterman, who has consistently voted with the GOP every time, echoed the views of his counterparts across the aisle and said any outside issues other than reopening the government could be dealt with after the lights are turned back on in Washington.

“It was a mistake to close it in March,” he added. “I’m in the same position. It’s not going to change. Everything else we talk about, open the government first, and then we can figure out the rest.”