Senate again rejects funding bills as government shutdown enters second week

The Senate on Wednesday again rejected dueling Republican and Democratic funding proposals to end the government shutdown, which stretched into its eighth day with no hint of progress toward a resolution.

In a 54-45 vote, the Senate did not advance a GOP-led stopgap bill that would have funded the government through late November. An alternative funding bill backed by Democrats also failed in a 47-52 vote around 12:50 p.m. ET.

The same three senators from the Democratic caucus who have voted with Republicans on previous votes — John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Nevada’s Catherine Cortez Masto, as well as Angus King of Maine, one of two independents in the caucus — did so again on Wednesday.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., again voted with Democrats to oppose the GOP measure. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, did not vote.

The competing stopgaps had already failed to pass in five previous votes.

Both parties’ leaders blame each other for the shutdown, which began on Oct. 1.

Republicans, who hold slim majorities in both chambers of Congress, want a short-term measure that will resume funding the U.S. government at current levels through Nov. 21.

The House GOP bill also includes funding for additional security for lawmakers following the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

Democrats’ alternative includes more than $1 trillion in additional health-care funding, including an extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of this year.

“Republicans are shutting down the government because they refuse to fix and address the crisis in American health care,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said before the votes began.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has floated a possible off-ramp to the shutdown that would include GOP commitments on a deal related to enhanced Obamacare tax credits, Punchbowl News reported.

But her proposal — which suggests a conversation about ACA extensions after the government reopens — did not sway any Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday.

Republicans currently need about eight votes from senators in the Democratic caucus to pass their short-term funding measure to overcome the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster rules.

President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans have largely refused to negotiate with Democrats, whom they accuse of holding the government hostage.

The Democrats’ funding proposal “doesn’t pass here, doesn’t pass the House, wouldn’t get signed into law by the president,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said on the chamber floor after Schumer.

The White House has also warned that federal workers will be fired, and floated the possibility of denying back pay to furloughed employees, if the shutdown drags on much longer.

But House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said on Wednesday that he agrees that federal law requires furloughed workers to be paid upon their return to work.

— CNBC’s Lillian Rizzo contributed to this report.