While a number of Democratic lawmakers are voicing their support for a new bipartisan deal to bring the 40-day federal government shutdown to an end, members of the party’s left-flank are furious about the proposed agreement.
Progressive Democratic lawmakers and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries excoriated a deal Sunday negotiated by fellow members of their party to reopen the government, citing their fear Democrats are going to cave without winning any substantive concessions in the shutdown fight. The group of Democrats argued their party should withhold their votes until Republicans agree to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies.
“We will not support spending legislation advanced by Senate Republicans that fails to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits,” Jeffries wrote on X. “We will fight the GOP bill in the House of Representatives,” the minority leader added.
The minority leader did not mention that eight Senate Democrats would have to vote “yes” on the spending bills to send the legislation to the House. Just three members of the Democratic caucus have voted to advance a stopgap spending bill since the beginning of the record-breaking shutdown; adding their support to that of 52 Senate Republicans, however, falls short of the upper chamber’s 60-vote threshold for legislation.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also told reporters Sunday he opposed the bipartisan deal.
A handful of Senate Democrats, however, indicated Sunday they would flip their position to “yes” and support a bipartisan framework to end the funding lapse. Senate Republicans are also expected to support the agreement except for Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who typically opposes government funding bills.
The emerging deal includes a stopgap spending bill which extends government funding levels through the end of January 2026 and advances three full-year appropriations bills.
The agreement notably omits a guaranteed extension of the expiring ACA subsidies. Still, Senate Majority Leader John Thune has offered Democrats a vote on an ACA extension bill of their choosing in December. The measure, however, could face an uphill climb to clear the filibuster due to Republicans’ widespread opposition to extending the subsidies without significant reform.
Jeffries said earlier Sunday a vote to extend the Obamacare subsidies which is not guaranteed to pass is insufficient. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, meanwhile, has notably offered Democrats a vote on extending the ACA subsidies since mid-October.
Leading progressive Democrats in both the House and Senate agreed with Jeffries’s argument.
“It would be a policy and political disaster for Democrats to cave,” Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats, told reporters Sunday.
“Caving on a deal that doesn’t fix health care is, and always has been, a giant betrayal of the American people,” Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, wrote Sunday on X. “Hold the line. Save health care. I’m a NO on anything that doesn’t extend ACA subsidies.”
Democratic Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, who said he opposed the deal, referred to an ACA bill vote as a “show vote” on X.
Democratic National Committee Vice Chair Malcolm Kenyatta also voiced his disapproval of the bipartisan agreement to end the shutdown, arguing “any ‘deal’ that ends with Dems just getting a pinky promise in return is a mistake.”
Still, some centrist Democrats have argued it’s time for the record-breaking shutdown to end. The 40-day shutdown forced a swath of government employees to report to work without pay, jeopardized federal food aid for millions, and snarled air travel across the country due to safety risks.
Virginia Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger said Sunday that Senate Democrats should work with Republicans to fund the government immediately.
“The government needs to open and it needs to open immediately,” Spanberger told CBS News’s Margaret Brennan. “We need the president to demonstrate leadership, bringing people together, endeavoring to get through whatever negotiations need to get through, whether it’s before or after.”
When asked by Brennan if Democrats should view their wins in Tuesday’s elections as justification to prolong the shutdown regardless of whether they win concessions on extending the ACA subsidies, Spanberger answered “absolutely not.”
“Virginians need to and Virginians want to see the government reopen, and my expectation is that we will see a Congress, a Senate, and ultimately a president driving us in that direction,” Spanberger said.
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