Senate Republicans to lunch in Rose Garden as shutdown continues

Niels Lesniewski, CQ-Roll Call on Oct 20, 2025

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is expected to host Senate Republicans for a Rose Garden lunch Tuesday, while the ongoing partial government shutdown continues to have no end in sight.

A GOP source confirmed the plan for the White House visit, which comes as the Senate majority will also try this week to call up a bill that would pay federal workers who are on the job during the shutdown. The Senate this week is also expected to continue to confirm Trump’s judicial nominees.

The House, meanwhile, continues to be out of session. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has showed no signs of changing course toward recalling lawmakers before the Senate passes government funding legislation.

The Senate is voting again Monday evening on a motion to try to break a filibuster on proceeding to the House-passed short-term continuing resolution that would reopen the government, but there was no sign over the weekend that the measure was any closer to picking up the additional Democratic support needed to clear the 60-vote threshold. The stalemate has led Senate Republicans to ponder other options, including a proposal from Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., that would allocate money to federal employees who must work without pay during the shutdown, funding the payments through the relevant departments and agencies once Congress acts to reopen the government.

“We are going to have a vote on Ron Johnson’s bill that is basically going to say we are going to pay you during a shutdown,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said on “Fox News Sunday.” “And I’m hoping that our Democrat friends will join with us on this one, because to me — another easy one, although the simplest solution, as I’ve said numerous times already this morning, is to just reopen the government.”

Johnson’s bill would apply not only to the current shutdown but also to future lapses in appropriations.

Democratic support for that proposal does not seem likely, since it could give additional flexibility to Trump and his administration to operate without appropriations.

The bulk of the Senate Democratic Caucus has stayed united behind Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., in rejecting efforts to pass the continuing resolution without negotiations over health policy, in particular extending the enhanced premium tax credits that help people buy insurance plans on the marketplaces set up through the 2010 health care law. On the podcast “The Checkup with Dr. Mike” released this weekend, Schumer argued that public opinion would only go further in Democrats’ direction as the open enrollment window approaches.

“The Republicans are misreading how bad this is. But day by day, more and more people are getting these notices. By Oct. 31, everyone who has any health insurance will be getting these notices,” Schumer said.

In the meantime, the Senate is maintaining a robust committee schedule, including a potential must-watch hearing at the Senate Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Subcommittee with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer scheduled to testify at 10 a.m. Tuesday. That comes as Trump is continuing to ratchet up tariff pressure on both allies and adversaries around the globe. The Senate also still has pending a pair of joint resolutions designed to terminate national emergency declarations that Trump has used as the basis for tariffs on Brazil and Canada. Floor votes in relation to both of those measures could come as soon as this week, with consideration scheduled to take place by Oct. 31.