Senate Republicans desire to pass "rifle shot" funding bills, but are standing firm in their position that reopening the government is the best solution. (Samuel Corum/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
"The House-passed CR is, you know, the idea that we could get any appropriations bills done, you know, by November the 21st now, that date's lost," Thune said.
The objective now is to produce a CR that extends the funding deadline, possibly into January. Thune said that he was "certainly open" to extending the deadline into next year. Senate Republicans tried to get a package of three bills on the floor, along with possibly more, late last month. But that move was blocked by Senate Democrats.
"As you look at the calendar, if you want to do normal appropriations work, you look at how long it takes to get bills across the floor in the Senate and through the House," he said. "It's, you know, the longer sort of runway there is better."
To do so would either require a fresh CR, or the House-passed bill could be amended. Still, anything that Republicans hash out will need to break through the 60-vote threshold in the Senate and require support from Democrats.
TRUMP'S 'NUCLEAR' DEMAND NOT LANDING FOR SENATE REPUBLICANS AMID SHUTDOWN
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Representative Lisa McClain, and Representative Steve Scalise, left to right, during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
"In both chambers, both parties, there's a dread of what's called the Christmas omnibus, where we put you right up to the edge of Christmas, and they don't let you go home to your family until you pass a God awful omnibus bill. We don't want to do that to our members," he said.
But there's another faction within the GOP calling for a longer-term bill. A source familiar with the House Freedom Caucus told Fox News Digital last month that its chairman, Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., would advocate for a bill extending into December 2026 — provided he agreed with the details in the measure itself.
Meanwhile, Thune said that he was optimistic that the shutdown could end this week. The Senate is nearing yet another scheduled recess, this time for Veterans’ Day next week, that could see lawmakers leave Washington, D.C., with the government still closed.
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He wasn’t ready to outright cancel the recess, but noted that "if we don't start seeing some progress or some evidence of that by at least the middle of this week, it's hard to see how we would finish anything by the end of the week."
"I think we're getting close to an off-ramp here, but, you know, this is unlike any other government shutdown," he said.
Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-republicans-plot-longer-term-funding-bill-government-shutdown-continues