Washington (AP) – Visits to Capitol have come to the stop. The room keeps its doors closed, while the Senate is stuck in a loop of failing votes On a plan rejected to reopen the government. President Donald Trump threatens to draw mass from federal workers and Refusal Back Pay for the rest.
Like the government closure Enter a second week, there is no noticeable end of the game in sight.
“You have to negotiate,” said senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, was disputed late in the evening in the Senate. “This is how it works.”
But no negotiations, at least publicly, is underway.
The head of the Senate minority, Chuck Schumer, Dn.y., speaks to journalists after the weekly lunch of the Senate policy on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday October 7, 2025. (AP Photo / Allison Robbert)
The stop hangs on, but signs of quiet talks
Republicans who have majority control at Congress think they have the top politically, because they postpone democratic requests to finance quickly Health insurance grants As part of any plan to end the closure.
But the Democrats therefore dug, convinced that the Americans are on their side in the fight to prevent Imminent health care price peaks And blame Trump for closing.
Behind the scenes, however, signs of discomfort are apparent.
A collection vaguely made up of senators, republicans and democrats, have planted options to solve the health insurance problem. One, senator Susan Collins of Maine, offered her own plans.
Two eminent Republicans, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Senator Josh Hawley From Missouri, said something should be done to stop the increases in health insurance rates.
And Trump himself reported that he was open to negotiating with the Democrats for their requests to save health care subsidies. Earlier this week, the president said that talks were already underway because he wanted “great health care” for people, to change his tone a few hours later to say that the government must first reopen.
Trump wants to conclude a health care agreement
“I spoke for a long time of the president yesterday on this subject”, ” Mike Johnson room president said about his conversation on Monday with Trump. “And yes, he wants to solve problems.”
Basically, the debate is on the health care problem entangled repeal and replace During his first mandate at the White House.
The congress increased federal subsidies that help people buy private insurance policies on the exchange of the affordable care law during the COVVI-19 pandemic. The federal aid was popular and stimulated the inscription to the ACA in A record of 24 million people. These improved subsidies should expire at the end of the year.
Republicans say that Congress can face the question of health insurance in the coming months. Democrats are fighting to solve the problem now, because people receive higher rate of higher year for the new year.
Leader of the majority of the Senate John ThuneThe Southern Dakota Republican, said there could be a way to follow – once the government will reopen.
“We had always planned to have these discussions,” said Johnson, R-La.
While the government’s closure enters the second week, the president of the Senate credit committee, Susan Collins, R-Maine, Center, suggested putting forward a group of bipartisan expenditure invoices which are pending and then ensure a commitment to discuss the problem of health care as a way to get out of the dead end, to the Appotol in Washington, Tuesday 7, 2025.
Doubts are high and confidence is low
But the Democrats argue that the Republicans did not address the subsidies expired of health care this summer when they approved Trump’s signature bill, commonly called A major bill.
Democrats doubt that with Johnson keeping the House outside the legislative session and returning legislators to their homes to work in their districts, the Republicans will quickly return to work to solve the problem of health care.
“Tens of millions of people are about to undergo considerably increased health insurance costs – how is it acceptable in the richest country in world history?” said Democrat leader of the Hakeem Jeffries room from New York.
“A health care crisis takes place before the eyes of the American people because of the actions taken by the GOP-they are on vacation,” he said.
The president of the Mike Johnson room, R-La., Is addressed to journalists after the weekly lunch of the Senate policy he attended at Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday October 7, 2025. (AP Photo / Allison Robbert)
Missed pay checks for workers, and more stranded votes
Although federal employees have often lacked payroll checks during closures and the first pay period arrives next week, Trump is now threatening to remove the guaranteed back salary. It would be a brutal gap of what is normal. The White House budget office, under Russ Vought, maintains that the law says that return remuneration is not automatic and that the congress should approve it.
At the same time, Thune’s strategy to try to take off more democratic senators to join the Republicans to advance the bill adopted by the Chamber which would finance the government without correction of health care did not work.
In fact, the parts separate further. Senator Angus King, independent of Maine who voted several times with Republicans to finance the government, said that he could change his vote, joining most of the Democratic senators who hold better agreement.
The Senate is expected to try again on Wednesday to advance the GOP bill in the Chamber, but it should again fail.
Each side has dug, convinced that they are on the right side of the stop fight, in part because this is what their internal data show.
During the weekend, the Democrats of the Senate were informed of the information suggesting that their health care messaging resonated with the voters. The note of the majority of the Senate PAC was broadcast to host democrats and camp on a national scale on Tuesday, with a clear directive: hold the line.
“It would be a mistake to remove the pressure from the Republicans,” said the memo.
The Republicans, on the other hand, stick to their own manual. A campaign arm of the GOP campaign of the Chamber has urged candidates to focus on the economic impact of the closure, including a rupture at the level of the district of which would be affected by a closure of the government.
Each party has supervised the stop fight as a precursor of the mid-term elections of 2026.
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The editors of the associated press Kevin Freking and Stephen Groves contributed to this report.
