Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, left, and US House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, during a news conference at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, Oct. 10, 2025.
Valerie Plesch | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The government shutdown stretched into its third week on Wednesday as Republican and Democratic senators continued to dig in their heels on dueling stopgap funding proposals.
The Senate is set Wednesday afternoon to vote for the ninth time on competing short-term funding resolutions that have failed in eight previous votes.
Republicans insist on a “clean” continuing resolution that would provide funds to reopen the government until at least Nov. 21.
Democrats want any funding bill to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to run out at the end of this year. That and other provisions in the Democratic bill would cost an estimated $1 trillion.
Wednesday’s vote comes days after the Trump administration said in a court filing that more than 4,000 federal employees received notifications that they were being laid off.
Trump administration officials blame the so-called reductions-in-force on Senate Democrats’ refusal to vote for the Republican funding proposal.
“Democrats are dug in 15 days into a government shutdown. Democrats show no sign that they’re ready for it to end,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Wednesday on the chamber’s floor.
“Not even the prospect of military families going without a paycheck was enough for Democrats to reopen the government,” Thune said.
“Nor are Democrats concerned about needy families uncertain about … the future of nutrition assistance, or Americans in flood zones who are unable to update their insurance or close on a home in the midst of hurricane season,” Thune said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., countered Thune’s argument, saying that the government has been shut since Oct. 1 because Republicans “refuse to work with Democrats in a serious way to fix the health care crisis looming over the American people.”
“As we speak, families are receiving letters for their new health insurance rates, and more states, more states are opening their window shopping period for what health insurance will look like next year,” Schumer said.
“With open enrollment around the corner, Republicans cannot continue to kick this can down the road. It’s happening now. The health care crisis is now,” Schumer said.
Thune and other Republicans have said they are willing to discuss the question of extending ACA enhanced tax credits after the short-term funding is approved.
“We need five more Democrats to say enough is enough to put the American people ahead of the far left and to support this clean, nonpartisan continuing resolution sitting right there at the Senate desk, ready to be picked up and passed today,” said Thune on Wednesday.