Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and most Senate Democrats are unwilling to budge on their position as the government shutdown rolls into the weekend. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., plans to bring the bill to the floor again and again in a bid to chip away at Democrats' largely unified front. He lamented the work that could be happening, like advancing spending bills and negotiating other bipartisan priorities, on the Senate floor rather than repeating the same exercise of trying to reopen the government.
"They have taken hostage the federal government and, by extension, the American people, who are the only losers in this," Thune said. "Everybody's talking about who wins and who loses and who gets the blame. That's not what this is about. This is about doing what's in the best interest of the American people. And what's in the best interest of the American people is keeping the government open and operating so it can continue to work on their behalf."
Senate Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., demand that they get a seat at the table to negotiate a bipartisan continuing resolution (CR).
Their main rallying cry has been pushing for an extension to expiring Obamacare tax credits, which Senate Republicans have said they would consider only after the government is reopened. While the credits don’t expire until the end of the year, Democrats argue that if Congress doesn’t act now, people who use Obamacare will see their healthcare premiums skyrocket.
"We know Americans want this, and we know many of my Republican colleagues want this as well," Schumer said. "But failure to act would be devastating. And Republicans know it. Even Donald Trump knows it. He talked about it a little bit with us in the White House."
DEMOCRATS REFUSE TO BUDGE OVER OBAMACARE FIGHT AS SHUTDOWN DRAGS ON
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., speaks to a reporter after a vote in the U.S. Capitol July 23, 2025 (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought announced Friday that $2.8 billion in Chicago infrastructure project funding would be put on hold to prevent "race-based contracting," a move that came on the heels of $18 billion in infrastructure money in New York City and $8 billion in "Green New Scam" funding from going to 16 blue states being withheld earlier this week.
Thune argued that the administration is what Democrats "have wrought" by continuing to withhold their votes.
"They are allowing the administration to do the very thing that, back in March, they said they didn't want to give them the authority to do," he said. "And that's to make decisions just like that. But that's what's going to happen."
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Meanwhile, bipartisan talks are brewing in the background, though no real deal nor compromise has materialized.
There have been suggestions of extending the credits for another year after the government is reopened or doing a shorter CR to match up with the beginning of open enrollment on Nov. 1. But Republicans engaged in talks are more keen to keep the government open until at least Nov. 21 to allow appropriators to finish their work on spending bills.
"Nobody's married to any of this, but we've got to get the 45 days in effect first," Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said.
Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/government-shutdown-drags-weekend-senate-democrats-block-gop-plan