WASHINGTON – For the 10th consecutive time, Senate Democrats are set to block a temporary funding measure on Thursday that would end the government shutdown. They remain firm in their stance, demanding that Congress address health care benefits before any agreement is reached.

Repeated votes on this funding proposal have become a daily fixture in Congress, highlighting the deep-seated deadlock. It has, at times, been the sole focus of the Senate’s agenda, while House Republicans have already departed from Washington. This impasse has persisted for over two weeks, resulting in hundreds of thousands of federal employees being furloughed and even more without assured paychecks, effectively paralyzing legislative progress.

“With each passing day, more Americans are receiving diminished paychecks,” stated Senate Majority Leader John Thune. He also noted that flight delays across the nation have been mounting.

Thune, representing South Dakota, has repeatedly urged Democrats to abandon their strategy of opposing the stopgap funding bill, but these efforts have not swayed them. Although some bipartisan discussions have explored potential compromises over health care issues, they have yet to yield significant steps toward reopening the government.

The Democrats remain resolute, demanding assurances to extend subsidies for health plans under the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. They caution that millions of Americans, including small business owners, farmers, and independent contractors, could face significant premium increases as prices are set to rise in the coming weeks. With a crucial November 1 deadline approaching in most states, they anticipate that voter pressure will compel Republicans to engage in earnest negotiations.

“We have to do something, and right now, Republicans are letting these tax credits expire,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.

Still, Thune was also trying a different tack Thursday with a vote to proceed to appropriations bills — a move that could grease the Senate’s wheels into some action or just deepen the divide between the two parties.

A deadline for subsidies on health plans

Democrats have rallied around their priorities on health care as they hold out against voting for a Republican bill that would reopen the government. Yet they also warn that the time to strike a deal to prevent large increases for many health plans is drawing short.

When they controlled Congress during the pandemic, Democrats boosted subsidies for Affordable Care Act health plans. It pushed enrollment under President Barack Obama’s signature health care law to new levels and drove the rate of uninsured people to a historic low. Nearly 24 million people currently get their health insurance from subsidized marketplaces, according to health care research nonprofit KFF.

Democrats — and some Republicans — are worried that many of those people will forgo insurance if the price rises dramatically. While the tax credits don’t expire until next year, health insurers will soon send out notices of the price increases. In most states, they go out Nov. 1.

Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said she has heard from “families who are absolutely panicking about their premiums that are doubling.”

“They are small business owners who are having to think about abandoning the job they love to get employer-sponsored health care elsewhere or just forgoing coverage altogether,” she added.

Murray also said that if many people decide to leave their health plan, it could have an effect across medical insurance because the pool of people under health plans will shrink. That could result in higher prices across the board, she said.

Some Republicans have acknowledged that the expiration of the tax credits could be a problem and floated potential compromises to address it, but there is hardly a consensus among the GOP.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., this week called the COVID-era subsidies a “boondoggle,” adding that “when you subsidize the health care system and you pay insurance companies more, the prices increase.”

President Donald Trump has said he would “like to see a deal done for great health care,” but has not meaningfully weighed into the debate. And Thune has insisted that Democrats first vote to reopen the government before entering any negotiations on health care.

If Congress were to engage in negotiations on significant changes to health care, it would likely take weeks, if not longer, to work out a compromise.

Votes on appropriations bills

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are setting up a vote Thursday to proceed to a bill to fund the Defense Department and several other areas of government. This would turn the Senate to Thune’s priority of working through spending bills and potentially pave the way to paying salaries for troops, though the House would eventually need to come back to Washington to vote for a final bill negotiated between the two chambers.

Thune said it would be a step toward getting “the government funded in the traditional way, which is through the annual appropriations process.”

It wasn’t clear whether Democrats would give the support needed to advance the bills. They discussed the idea at their luncheon Wednesday and emerged saying they wanted to review the Republican proposal and make sure it included appropriations that are priorities for them.

While the votes will not bring the Senate any closer to an immediate fix for the government shutdown, it could at least turn their attention to issues where there is some bipartisan agreement.