Democrats’ unity cracks as Senate agrees to end shutdown. Next the House votes.
After more than 40 days, the end of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history is in sight after eight Democratic senators voted with Republicans Monday night to reopen the federal government until January 30. The final step will take place on Wednesday in the House, where President Mike Johnson will have to maintain his narrow Republican majority to pass the financing bill.
But while the disruptions caused by the shutdown, including canceled flights and unpaid food benefits, may be coming to an end, Democratic intraparty bickering may be just beginning.
The Senate resolution came after weeks of relative Democratic unity — with party leaders insisting they would not vote to fund the government until Republicans extended the Affordable Care Act subsidies. It also follows big election victories for Democrats and polls suggesting a majority of American voters agreed on the need to extend the subsidies. Many Democrats were both surprised and angry that all eight senators defected, without getting any real concessions from Republicans that they couldn’t have gotten six weeks ago.
Why we wrote this
Disruptions to food aid and air travel were among the pressure points that prompted eight Democratic senators to join Republicans in voting to end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. A House vote, expected soon, would officially reopen the government.
The measure funds agencies such as the Departments of Agriculture and Veterans Affairs for the fiscal year and the rest of the government through Jan. 30. It requires federal employees laid off during the shutdown to be rehired with back pay. On health care, Democrats secured a promise from Senate Majority Leader John Thune to hold a vote on ACA subsidies next month — essentially the same deal he proposed 16 days after the shutdown began. There is no guarantee that a vote will even take place in the House.
“This is how it was always going to end,” Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas told the Monitor Monday evening.
Some Democratic senators appeared to conclude that they had already taken maximum political advantage from the situation, showing voters that the party, out of power since January, was capable of fighting back against President Donald Trump and the Republican Party. Given their lack of leverage, many Democrats believed they were unlikely to achieve significant policy victories. And the tension between political points and concerns about the tangible harms of the shutdown has only grown as those harms have become more specific.
“We demonstrated two things. First, Democratic unity on health care. Second, Democratic unity in fighting Trump’s lawlessness,” said Democratic Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont. Even though the shutdown was “very painful,” Senator Welch says he would have preferred to stick it out.
“We were all in uncharted territory, but we were confronted with uncharted…lawless behavior from a president. So my judgment was that it was worth holding on,” he says. At the same time, he acknowledges that a guarantee on ACA subsidies was probably out of reach once Mr. Trump told congressional Republicans not to negotiate.
“Any good general, if the strategy isn’t working, you change tactics. And especially if your own troops are in danger,” Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent who united with Democrats and voted to end the shutdown, said on MSNBC Monday. “There was collateral damage to the American people. At the same time, the goal was not achieved.”
The government shutdown actually gave Mr. Trump “more power,” Mr. King said, as the president sought to choose which federal employees were paid and block Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments, effectively freezing a program that 42 million Americans rely on to help them buy groceries.
Despite headlines about Democratic senators “giving in,” Republican lawmakers have little to celebrate either. Their party bears more of the blame for the shutdown, according to public opinion polls, and tough decisions await them on health care and other spending before next year’s midterm elections. The Jan. 30 expiration of the current funding bill means lawmakers could find themselves in the same place in less than three months.
The measure passed the Senate 60-40, with five Democratic senators joining Republicans and Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, as well as Sen. King, who have been voting to defund the government for weeks. The five new “yes” votes came from Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, who announced his retirement, as well as Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada and Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia. None are up for re-election next year.
These eight senators were immediately criticized by their peers. The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump Republican group, called them the “hate eight,” and progressive groups MoveOn and Our Revolution called on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to resign as Democratic leader. Sen. Kaine suggested that some Democrats were quietly grateful to the eight who voted to end the shutdown, and that more of them wish they had.
But when asked by a reporter on Monday whether Mr. Schumer had blessed the defections, Democratic Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii replied: “That, I can confirm, is not true.”
Mr. Schumer could face the brunt of Democratic criticism in the days and weeks ahead, just as he did in March when he asked his caucus to avoid a government shutdown altogether and vote in favor of a funding measure. House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries said in a news conference Monday that he supported the Senate leader, a departure from March, when Mr. Jeffries said “next question” in response to a similar question.
Some senators on Capitol Hill expressed support for Mr. Schumer on Monday. “So far, I think he’s done a good job,” said Sen. Cortez Masto, who voted Monday to reopen the government. Others seem suspicious. Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin said she was “disappointed” and argued that Democrats were failing to “respond in a timely manner.”
But it was still “asymmetric warfare,” says Jim Kessler, Mr. Schumer’s former political director and co-founder of the center-left think tank Third Way. And in such a situation, the minority party forcing the shutdown has only one tool at its disposal, he says, and that is communication – shaping public perceptions.
“I think the Democrats have accomplished something really important that they will realize when the dust settles,” Mr. Kessler says. And that’s the discipline of the message: they stayed focused on health care and brought the public’s attention to that topic as well. “As premiums increase, [voters will] remember who did it. It was Donald Trump. And when you consider the long game, that’s a significant accomplishment.
Mr. Kessler nonetheless wishes Senate Democrats had held on a little longer — although he thinks it is unlikely they would have gained anything on policy.
“I think there was gas left in the tank for a fight,” he said, “and the fight matters.”
