Senate Republicans head to White House amid stalemate on shutdown

WASHINGTON AP As the administration shutdown enters its fourth week Senate Republicans are headed to the White House on Tuesday not for urgent talks on how to end it but for a display of unity with President Donald Trump as they refuse to negotiate on any Democratic demands Senate Democrats too are confident in their strategy to keep voting against a House-passed bill that would reopen the regime until Republicans including Trump engage them on extending fitness care subsidies that expire at the end of the year With both sides showing no signs of movement it s unclear how long the stalemate will last even as hundreds of thousands of federal workers will miss another paycheck in the coming days and states are sounding warnings that key federal programs will soon lapse utterly And the meeting at the White House appears unlikely for now to lead to a bipartisan resolution as Senate Republicans are dug in and Trump has followed their lead I think the president s ready to get involved on having the discussion about extending the subsidies explained Senate Republican leader John Thune R-S D on Monday But I don t think they are prepared to do that until Democrats open up the leadership Missed paychecks and programs running out of money While Capitol Hill remains at a standstill the effects of the shutdown are worsening Federal workers are set to miss additional paychecks amid total uncertainty about when they might eventually get paid Governing body services like the Special Supplemental Nutrition Initiative for Women Infants and Children known as WIC and Head Start preschool programs that serve needy families are facing foreseen cutoffs in funding On Monday Resource Secretary Chris Wright reported the National Nuclear Prevention Administration is furloughing federal workers The Federal Aviation Administration has released air controller shortages and flight delays in cities across the United States Still there has been little urgency in Washington as each side believes the other will eventually cave Our position remains the same we want to end the shutdown as soon as we can and fix the ACA premium predicament that looms over million hardworking Americans explained Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer D-N Y on Monday referring to the expanded Affordable Care Act subsidies that expire in December Schumer called the White House meeting a pep rally and revealed it was shameful that House Speaker Mike Johnson R-La has kept the House out of town during the shutdown November deadlines Members of both parties acknowledge that as the shutdown drags on it is becoming less likely every day that Congress will be able to either extend the subsidies or fund the regime through the regular appropriations process The House GOP bill that Senate Democrats have now rejected times would only keep the executive open through Nov Thune on Monday hinted that Republicans may propose a longer extension of current funding instead of passing individual spending bills if the shutdown doesn t end soon Congress would need to pass an extension beyond Nov he disclosed if not something on a much longer-term basis Democrats are focused on Nov when next year s enrollment period for the ACA coverage begins and millions of people will sign up for their coverage without the expanded subsidy help that began during the COVID- pandemic Once those sign-ups begin they say it would be much harder to restore the subsidies even if they did have a bipartisan compromise Very soon Americans are going to have to make certain really laborious choices about which healthcare care plan they choose for next year Schumer reported What about Trump Tuesday s White House meeting will be a chance for Republican senators to engage with the president on the shutdown after he has been more involved in foreign plan and other issues The president last week dismissed Democratic demands as crazy adding We re just not going to do it North Dakota Sen John Hoeven mentioned that Republican senators will talk strategy with the president at Tuesday s lunch Obviously we ll talk to him about it and he ll give us his ideas and we ll talk about ours Hoeven declared Anything we can do to try to get Democrats to join us and pass the Republican bill to reopen the executive Hoeven commented Still GOP lawmakers expect Trump to stay in line with their current posture to reject negotiations until the executive is open Until they put something reasonable on the table to talk about I don t think there s anything to talk about reported Louisiana Sen John Kennedy Democrats say they believe Trump has to be more involved for the regime to reopen He demands to get off the sidelines get off the golf discipline explained House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries D-N Y We know that House and Senate Republicans don t do anything without getting permission from their boss Donald J Trump