{"id":363926,"date":"2025-11-08T06:27:28","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T06:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/363926\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T06:27:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T06:27:28","slug":"senate-democrats-block-gop-led-bill-to-pay-federal-workers-as-shutdown-stalemate-deepens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/363926\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate Democrats block GOP-led bill to pay federal workers as shutdown stalemate deepens"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n The Senate on Friday failed to pass a bill to pay federal workers forced to work without pay during the government shutdown, with Democrats refusing to yield to GOP attempts to fund any parts of the federal government without major concessions for their party.\n <\/p>\n

\n The shutdown \u2013 already the longest on record \u2013 is now likely to extend into next week as painful consequences impact millions of Americans across the country, from major air travel disruptions to uncertainty over critical federal aid programs.\n <\/p>\n

\n The vote was 53 to 43. Three Democrats crossed the aisle to vote with Republicans in support: Sens. Ben Ray Lujan, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock\n <\/p>\n

\n The federal worker pay bill from GOP Sen. Ron Johnson failed even after Republicans said they would <\/strong>add language specifically requested by Democrats to pay both workers who are required to work during the shutdown \u2014 also known as \u201cessential\u201d workers \u2014 as well as the hundreds of thousands of workers who were furloughed.\n <\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s the latest sign that the record-long stalemate on Capitol Hill is not close to an end. Just days earlier, GOP leaders believed Democrats were on the cusp of accepting their proposal of a future vote on the health care subsidies. Now, an exasperated Senate Majority Leader John Thune has been left with no real path forward as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democrats line up behind an offer of their own that GOP lawmakers have widely rejected.\n <\/p>\n

\n In response to the vote on the federal pay bill, Democrats, for their part, said they were refusing to yield to a funding measure that limits the shutdown pain for only some Americans.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe cannot leave any Americans behind in this critical moment \u2014 we must reopen all of the government and prevent Americans\u2019 costs from spiking because of Republican in action,\u201d said a memo obtained by CNN from Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations panel.\n <\/p>\n

\"Senate<\/p>\n

\n Ahead of the vote, Schumer said that Democrats would agree to end the shutdown in exchange for a one-year extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, an issue that has become the key sticking point in the shutdown stalemate.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cDemocrats are offering a very simple compromise,\u201d Schumer said, with dozens of Senate Democrats sitting beside him on the floor. \u201cNow, the ball is in the Republicans\u2019 court. We need Republicans to just say yes.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n But Senate Republicans, who have said they won\u2019t negotiate over the health care subsidies until the government is open, quickly dismissed the offer as unserious.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think everybody who follows this knows that\u2019s a nonstarter,\u201d Thune told reporters. \u201cThe Obamacare extension is the negotiation. That\u2019s what we\u2019re going to negotiate once the government opens up.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Inside the Capitol, the mood among Republicans is exasperation. Many \u2014 including Thune \u2014 felt blindsided by the Democrats\u2019 abrupt shift away from bipartisan talks this week. They want clearer pressure from Trump on Democrats \u2014 rather than just asking his own party to end the filibuster.\n <\/p>\n

\n The House, meanwhile, has been out of session since September 19, with those GOP lawmakers growing increasingly restless and frustrated at home in their districts. House Speaker Mike Johnson has maintained he will not bring back the chamber until Senate Democrats agree to reopen the government \u2014 preventing votes, hearings and most major committee work.\n <\/p>\n

\n GOP Sen. Ron Johnson, meanwhile, said he \u201cliterally begged\u201d Democrats to support the federal worker pay bill and fought to convince his fellow GOP senators to add furloughed workers to the measure.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIf you\u2019re going to force them to work, at a minimum, let\u2019s be sure to pay them. And pay them on time,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t quite that easy\u2026But in the end, we overcame objections in our conference\u2026 We completely amended the bill now. We\u2019ve added furloughed workers.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Senate<\/p>\n

\n A visibly frustrated Thune took the floor before the vote on Friday to accost Democrats for blocking the bill.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cEverybody in this chamber is going to be put on the record on whether or not they want to pay federal employees,\u201d Thune said. \u201cI am tired of political games, I really am.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Senate on Friday failed to pass a bill to pay federal workers forced to work without pay…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":363927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,50,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-363926","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115512663348357315","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}