{"id":12607,"date":"2025-12-16T14:39:37","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T14:39:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=12607"},"modified":"2025-12-16T14:39:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T14:39:37","slug":"senators-brace-for-another-possible-shutdown-in-january","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=12607","title":{"rendered":"Senators brace for another possible shutdown in January"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Reading Time:<\/span> 5<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

(The Hill) \u2013 Senators in both parties are bracing for another government shutdown next year after Republicans blocked a proposal to extend expiring health insurance subsidies, the issue that triggered the 43-day closure that consumed much of the fall calendar.\n<\/p>\n

Do you want\u00a0<\/span>s<\/span>tate<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>p<\/span>rayer\u00a0<\/span>a<\/span>lerts<\/span>?<\/span><\/h4>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Liberal Democrats in the Senate are fuming that Republicans blocked a proposal to extend the subsidies, which are due to expire in January, through 2028.\n<\/p>\n

A group of eight Democrats, mostly centrists, voted last month to reopen the government in hopes that Republicans might agree to a bipartisan compromise to keep health insurance premiums for people who buy their plans on the ObamaCare marketplace from soaring by double digits.\n<\/p>\n

Instead, the bipartisan talks to extend the subsidies foundered, setting the stage for a massive spike in health care premiums next year.\n<\/p>\n

This has given new momentum to liberals to argue that Democrats should use the upcoming Jan. 30 government funding deadline as leverage \u2014 just as they did in September and October \u2014 to force Republicans to make major concessions on federal health care spending.\n<\/p>\n

After Republicans defeated a Democratic bill to extend the subsidies for three years, Sen.\u00a0Elizabeth Warren\u00a0<\/span>(D-Mass.) said the next government funding deadline is a leverage point.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fight is not over,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

Sen.\u00a0Bernie Sanders\u00a0<\/span>(I-Vt.), another prominent progressive voice in the Senate Democratic Caucus, called the Republican vote against extending the enhanced subsidies \u201can outrage.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Asked if Democrats should threaten another shutdown to pressure Republicans to agree to extend the subsidies, Sanders said he didn\u2019t want to speculate but declared the expiration of tax credits \u201cis going to result in a lot of pain for a lot of people.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Congress\u2019s failure to extend the enhanced subsidies means that an estimated 4.8 million Americans will lose health care coverage in 2026 and more than 20 million Americans will see their health care costs rise dramatically.\n<\/p>\n

Insurance companies are projected to charge people who buy their insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace 26 percent more if the enhanced subsidies expire in January.\n<\/p>\n

A third member of the Senate Democratic Caucus who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the political situation said another government shutdown is possible if Republicans don\u2019t agree to pass a package of regular spending bills known as the minibus by the end of next month.\n<\/p>\n

The Democratic senators said that Democrats would have far less leverage if the Senate appropriations package, which covers the departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Labor, Commerce, Justice and Interior, among other agencies, passes next month.\n<\/p>\n

If President Trump signs that package into law, it would result in approximately 85 percent of the federal government being funded through September of 2026, leaving Democrats much less leverage to threaten a shutdown to get Republicans to agree to an extension of the enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits \u2014 the issue that triggered the shutdown in October.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they [bring] the group of five bills to the floor and we get them coordinated with \u2026 the House, then essentially you have appropriations bills for 85, 95 percent of the government by the end of January, and shutdown doesn\u2019t mean much,\u201d said the lawmaker.\n<\/p>\n

However, if those bills stall, then the likelihood of a shutdown skyrockets, the lawmaker said.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThen that raises this interesting question. Do we shut down over health care or Venezuela or Epstein files not being delivered,\u201d the senator warned.\n<\/p>\n

The Democratic lawmaker said if Trump initiates a large-scale bombing campaign against Venezuela, the issue will become a flash point on Capitol Hill that could spur Democrats to oppose any government funding bill to get the White House to back down.\n<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader\u00a0John Thune\u00a0<\/span>(R-S.D.) is pushing hard to get the package of five appropriations bills passed next month to take away leverage from Senate Democratic progressives who want to threaten another government shutdown to pressure Republicans to back an extension of the expiring health care subsidies.\n<\/p>\n

Sen.\u00a0John Cornyn\u00a0<\/span>(R-Texas) warned that if most of the annual appropriations bills are left in limbo by the end of January, Democrats could replay the strategy that led to the longest shutdown in American history earlier this year.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThey may be tempted to do it, as disastrous as the last one was,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

Cornyn predicted that Senate Democratic Leader\u00a0Chuck Schumer\u00a0<\/span>(N.Y.) would come under heavy pressure from liberals \u2014 both in the Senate and back home in New York \u2014 to force another government shutdown.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cSchumer\u2019s not in any different political position than he was back then,\u201d he said, referring to Schumer\u2019s opposition in September and October to a \u201cclean,\u201d seven-week continuing resolution to keep the government operating.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s afraid of the Democratic base,\u201d Cornyn added, warning that Republicans would be \u201ctaking a risk\u201d of another shutdown if they don\u2019t hammer out a bipartisan deal to pass the regular appropriations bills in January.\n<\/p>\n

Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) said she\u2019s worried about another shutdown if the five-bill spending package fails to move soon after New Year\u2019s Day.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cMy worry is if we don\u2019t pass this five-bill package, we will end up in a shutdown,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

The five-bill appropriations minibus is being delayed in the Senate by conservative Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who are objecting to the number of earmarks in the appropriations bill, authorizing language that they said should be attached to spending legislation and the sheer size of the package.\n<\/p>\n

Another major obstacle is that House GOP leaders haven\u2019t yet agreed to the top-line spending numbers for 2026. Collins told The Hill that she\u2019s waiting to hammer out the top-line spending levels for several bills with the House.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThere aren\u2019t top lines on several bills. There are [top-line spending agreements] on some but not on Labor, H, not on DOD, not on CJS,\u201d she said, referring to the bills funding the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Defense, Commerce and State.<\/p>\n

Appropriators are making some progress on resolving their disagreements with conservatives, which have stalled progress on the spending package for weeks.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Lee said he is negotiating over the authorizing language that falls within his jurisdiction as chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The language was added without his consent to the Interior appropriations bill.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI agreed to accept some of it, we\u2019re negotiating the final details about exactly what\u2019s going to be included,\u201d he said of the language in the Interior bill that spurred him to put a hold on the spending package.\n<\/p>\n

Lee said he\u2019s gotten \u201ccommitments\u201d on scheduling votes to strip some of the earmarks out of the package.\n<\/p>\n

How are you praying about this threat to our nation? Share your thoughts and prayers below.<\/h4>\n

This article was originally published at The Hill.<\/em>
\n \n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: 5 minutes (The Hill) \u2013 Senators in both parties are bracing for another government shutdown next year after Republicans blocked a proposal to extend expiring health insurance subsidies, the issue that triggered the 43-day closure that consumed much of the fall calendar. Do you want\u00a0state\u00a0prayer\u00a0alerts? \u00a0 Liberal Democrats in the Senate are fuming<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[2020,2829,3139,211],"class_list":["post-12607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-prayer","tag-brace","tag-january","tag-senators","tag-shutdown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}