Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Friday that Democrats would agree to end the shutdown in exchange for one more year of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies – an attempt to further pressure the GOP to make a deal.
Schumer’s offer to Republicans also includes a stopgap bill and three full-year funding bills, as first reported by CNN.
“Democrats are offering a very simple compromise,” Schumer said, with dozens of Senate Democrats sitting beside him on the floor. “Now, the ball is in the Republicans’ court. We need Republicans to just say yes.”
There is little expectation that Republicans will take their offer, however, given fierce GOP resistance to extending the health care subsidies with no reforms. Instead, it’s an attempt to showcase Democratic unity and attempt to put more pressure on Republicans heading into the weekend.
And because Republicans have said they will not negotiate on health care until the government reopens, Democrats said they are specifically calling for an extension of the current subsidies — rather than new policy.
“That’s not a negotiation. It’s an extension of current law,” Schumer said.
“We’re just asking to keep the credits in place for one year,” added Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, a retiring centrist who has been involved in the talks.
It’s a show of unity for Democrats, many of whom have been privately meeting with Republicans about a path forward – fueling speculation among the GOP that those centrists would fold. But as several made clear on the floor on Friday, they aren’t willing to reopen the government without a real solution on the subsidies.
“This is our path forward. This is how we reopen the government,” Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin said on the floor.