Democrats tight-lipped on shutdown off-ramp as pressure grows

WASHINGTON — Top Senate Democrats say the party is working through “differences of opinions” as they scramble to find an off-ramp to a month-old partial government shutdown that is set to become the longest on record Wednesday.

Democrats emerged tight-lipped from an unusually long closed-door caucus lunch on Tuesday as they weighed options to end the shutdown while pushing to extend enhanced health insurance subsidies that are set to expire at year’s end.

Republicans, meanwhile, clashed over how long to extend government funding, as Senate leaders indicated negotiators will need more time beyond the Nov. 21 deadline proposed in the House-passed continuing resolution to finish fiscal 2026 funding work.

With informal, bipartisan talks at a delicate stage, President Donald Trump plans to host Republican senators for breakfast at the White House Wednesday, an administration official confirmed.

Trump in recent days has called on Republicans to abolish the Senate filibuster, which would allow them to bypass Democratic opposition and pass a “clean” funding extension to reopen government with a simple-majority vote instead of the 60-vote threshold currently required. But Senate leaders have frowned on that idea, saying it would give Democrats carte blanche to pass whatever they want if they win the majority in coming elections.

The ongoing shutdown is poised to break the record Wednesday for the longest government funding lapse in U.S. history as it heads into a 36th day — after the Senate blocked the House-passed continuing resolution for a 14th time Tuesday. The previous record was set in Trump’s first term, when a dispute over funding for a southern border wall triggered a 35-day lapse.

A bipartisan deal to end the shutdown is likely to require some Democrats to agree to reopen government without an extension of the health subsidies that has been their top demand. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., declined to discuss details of the roughly three-hour caucus lunch, saying only that “we’re exploring all the options.”

Retiring Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, one of a small group of Democrats who have been holding informal talks with Republicans, was likewise mum on details.

“It was really very thoughtful,” Peters said of the lunch. “People had a lot to say and very thoughtful. It was one of the better caucus meetings I’ve been in.”

Searching for an off-ramp

There’s been cautious optimism among some senators of a potential bipartisan breakthrough in the shutdown standoff that they said could come as early as this week. Members have reported a jolt in cross-party negotiations as lawmakers look to end the impasse. But they added that much of that movement has been largely centered on plans to move bipartisan funding bills.

As for health care, a cornerstone for Democrats’ position in the shutdown fight, the party has kept its cards close on what concessions they’d be willing to stomach on a possible enhanced subsidy deal.

No Senate Democrats have explicitly ruled out support for a two-year extension deal, in comparison to the House, where Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and others have been pushing for a permanent extension.

Some Senate Democrats, like Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, have previously indicated they’d be open to capping income eligibility at some point as part of negotiations to get a deal, as some Republicans have sought. For others, that is a nonstarter.

But Democrats have seemed less amenable to a GOP proposal to require minimum premiums even for those in lower income levels.

And it’s still not yet clear whether enough Democrats would back any kind of health care deal that doesn’t include a guaranteed outcome of some kind of extension of the subsidies. Senate Republican leadership has repeatedly offered up a vote on extending subsidies, though leaders have emphasized that they can’t make promises regarding the result of that vote.

Meanwhile, GOP appropriators have pushed to complete a compromise version of a package of three full-year spending bills that the Senate had passed months ago — the Agriculture, Military Construction-VA and the Legislative Branch bills — and attach it to a continuing resolution with a later funding deadline as a means to end the shutdown.

“This three-bill package funds WIC for the year. It would fund SNAP benefits for the year. It would fund Capitol Police for the year. It would fund veterans for the year,” said Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., a senior appropriator. “And what a better way to show good faith than to take that off of the table.”

However, not all lawmakers see those full-year appropriations efforts as an avenue out of the shutdown.

“I’m not opposed. I’m just scratching my head about how this agreement on the (appropriations) bills is going to get us out of a shutdown,” said Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, a Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee. “I thought that what the Democrats wanted was Obamacare with subsidies. And so all of a sudden the focus has shifted to the (appropriations) bills. Just what I’m saying is I got to see it to believe it.”

End date in flux

Also up in the air is the duration of the expected alternative continuing resolution. Appropriators have thrown their support behind a funding extension running through a date in December, but other lawmakers are pushing for a bill that would extend into January.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said conversations about the duration of that bill are still ongoing.

“It’s Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate,” Thune told reporters when asked what’s prompting the debate on the CR’s end date. “Obviously you’ve got to have the votes to execute on whatever it is we put on the floor, and so we want to make sure that we do that in a way that enables us to have success.”

Those favoring a December end date are raising concerns that pushing the funding deadline into next year would increase the chances of ending up with a yearlong continuing resolution — the same outcome as the last fiscal year. Thune emphasized Tuesday that “nobody wants a yearlong continuing resolution” and “the best way to avoid that is to move the appropriations bills.”

But the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus on Tuesday threw its support behind a longer-term stopgap bill that would run past next year’s midterm elections.

“We believe a full-year Continuing Resolution will provide President Trump and Republicans the stability and leverage to continue our work to cut spending and rein in out-of-control woke, wasteful, and weaponized government,” the caucus said in a statement.

Some Senate Republicans, including Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Mike Lee of Utah, are growing more vocal in their support of a stopgap bill that would run into January to guard against a December holiday omnibus that encompasses multiple appropriations bills.

The need for House buy-in on a final stopgap spending bill is also complicating lawmakers’ calculus. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said he’s “not doing” a continuing resolution with a December end date and prefers a funding bill that runs into January, adding that “a lot of people around here have PTSD about Christmas omnibus spending bills.”

The House has been out of session for more than six weeks, with lawmakers largely remaining in their districts, though Johnson has kept members on a 48-hour notice for reconvening.

“If the Senate passes something, of course, we’ll come back,” Johnson said Tuesday. “We’re running out of clock.”

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(Aidan Quigley, Sandhya Raman and John T. Bennett contributed to this report.)

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