Government shutdown now tied for longest in U.S. history

WASHINGTON — As the government shutdown entered its 35th day, tying the record for the longest in U.S. history, the Senate is set to hold its 15th vote on a stopgap federal funding bill Tuesday.

But it isn’t likely to pass, even as 42 million low-income Americans miss their nutrition assistance payments and hundreds of thousands of federal workers go without pay.

“Democrats are going to keep pushing to get these premium tax credits extended,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “We’re not asking for anything radical. Lowering people’s health care costs is the definition of common sense and what Americans want.”

Senate Democrats have repeatedly blocked a Republican bill to temporarily fund the government through Nov. 21 over demands that it includes an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies that will otherwise expire at the end of the year. Last month, Republicans rejected a Democratic-led counterproposal to fund the government through Oct. 31 that included an extension of health care subsidies.

Trump, along with Republican leaders in the House and Senate, has insisted for weeks that GOP lawmakers will only negotiate with Democrats about health care subsidies once the shutdown has ended.

On Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits his administration had agreed to partially pay in November will “be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!”

In a separate post, Trump reiterated a plea he has been making since Friday, writing: “The Democrats are far more likely to win the Midterms, and the next Presidential Election, if we don’t do the Termination of the Filibuster (The Nuclear Option!), because it will be impossible for Republicans to get Common Sense Policies done with these Crazed Democrat Lunatics being able to block everything by withholding their votes.”

While the midterms are still a year away, Tuesday’s elections in California, New Jersey, New York City and Virginia are being widely considered referendums on the president’s leadership and could be a bellwether for 2026.

For several days, including in an interview that aired Sunday night on “60 Minutes,” the president has been urging Senate Republicans to end the filibuster, which would allow the stopgap funding bill to pass with a simple majority instead of 60 votes.

But Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who has long opposed ending the filibuster, stuck to a familiar script Tuesday.

“People are suffering all because Democrats can’t bring themselves to accept a clean, nonpartisan funding bill,” Thune said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “We need help from some Democrats with a backbone who are courageous enough to take on their left-wing base and do the right thing for the American people.”

During his daily news briefing Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., made the same request: “We hope there are a handful of moderate and centrist Democrats in the Senate. The whole country is counting on them.”

Even if the stopgap funding bill were to pass, the clock is ticking for Congress to hammer out the details on the appropriations bills they would need to agree upon by Nov. 21 to fund the federal government in the 2026 fiscal year. On Tuesday, Johnson said extending the temporary funding bill into January “makes sense, but we have to build consensus around that.”