Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks at a press conference with other Senate Democrats encouraging the passage of Affordable Care Act tax credits, in Washington, DC on September 16, 2025. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
"It’s a sticky situation," Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., told Fox News Digital.
The Hyde Amendment was first enacted in 1976, and has routinely been added to funding bills in the years since to ensure that federal dollars don’t prop up abortions. The issue has become a political third rail in the ongoing healthcare debate.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., acknowledged that it was a tricky situation and how difficult carving a path forward on extending the subsidies would be.
"Well, I think dealing with Hyde is a big issue," Thune said. "And so, obviously, for both sides we'll have to figure out how to make that work, and we'll see on that. I don't know the answer."
The Senate is set to vote on Senate Democrats’ subsidy proposal next week, which comes after Thune’s guarantee that there would be a vote in his bid to end the government shutdown last month.
BIPARTISAN DEAL ON OBAMACARE SUBSIDIES FADES AS REPUBLICANS PUSH HSA PLAN
Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., proved to be a key figure in reopening the government. But her initial plan was to jumpstart the government funding process, something she came to Congress to do three years ago. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, was one of the Senate Democratic caucus members that crossed the aisle to end the shutdown. He told Fox News Digital he wouldn’t comment on the Hyde Amendment back and forth, but he cast a grim outlook on how bipartisan talks were going.
"I don’t know if progressing is a word I would use," King said. "I would say that they are ongoing, and we'll see if we can find some resolution."
The Obamacare subsidies were a driving force behind Senate Democrats’ shutdown posture, and with the public unveiling of their proposal, it has some Senate Republicans wondering what the government shutdown was even for.
Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala, who was one of main figures in building a bipartisan bridge to reopen the government, told Fox News Digital that it was clear Schumer wanted to use healthcare as a "political issue in an election."
"Looking at it that way, I mean that you would care more about making sure that taxpayers have to fund abortions than you do about these subsidies shows you their priorities are clearly, in my opinion, out of whack," Britt said.
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For now, the only option on the table is Democrats’ proposal. Republicans are still trying to land on what exactly they want to do with the Obamacare issue. Funneling subsidy money into Healthcare Savings Accounts rather than to insurance companies has become a strong contender, but Senate Republicans still haven’t made their play call.
"I think that, my assumption is, if this is what they’re going to do next week, when it fails, then we will have a serious conversation about a real solution," Thune told Fox News Digital. "We haven’t decided yet exactly what we’re going to do, but what that signals though, evidences, is they’re just not serious."
Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/abortion-restrictions-create-major-roadblock-bipartisan-obamacare-subsidy-deal-senate