In remarks on the Senate floor Tuesday, party leaders continued to point fingers at one another as time ticked closer to the midnight deadline for the government to shut down if Congress can't pass a funding measure."Republicans have offered up a clean nonpartisan funding extension, the same kind of extension Democrats have repeatedly supported in the past and Democrats are blocking it for their own partisan purposes," Senate Majority Leader John Thune said.Thune again made a pitch for a "clean" bill that extends funding through mid-November.MORE: Trump admin live updates"We can pass this today.We can pass it right now all you have to do is get support form the Democrats.
The House has passed this," Thune said.House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries flanked by Rep.Pete Aguilar and Rep.
Katherine Clark speaks on the steps of the Capitol, in Washington, Sept.30, 2025.J.
Scott Applewhite/APBut Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer held firm to his belief that Republicans will own this shutdown for refusing to negotiate with Democrats on health care priorities."They call it clean we call it extremely partisan.Not one discussion, House or Senate, between the two leaders.
That is not how you negotiate and that is not how you pass appropriation bills," Schumer said.Democrats insist that any deal includes restoring $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts passed into law this summer on top of a permanent extension of the Obamacare subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, saving health insurance for 3.8 million people at a cost of $350 billion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.While House Republicans passed a stopgap measure to keep the government open through Nov.21, the measure stalled in the Senate, where Thune will need at least seven Democrats to vote for it to pass.Republicans crafted a clean seven-week funding bill in order to create more time for congressional appropriators to work through regular order: 12 separate full-year funding bil...