Senate Democrats’ next tough decision? Whether to play ball with Republicans on full-year appropriations bills or hold out to maintain leverage in the shutdown fight.
GOP leaders are unleashing a new strategy in hopes of creating some movement amid the standoff. Majority Leader John Thune teed up a Thursday procedural vote on the House-passed Defense spending bill as his Republican colleagues try to expedite a House conference on the three-bill package the Senate passed in August.
Whether this is a pressure tactic or a trust-building exercise depends on whom you ask.
“If the Democrats can see the regular appropriations process running more smoothly, that might encourage them,” Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) told POLITICO on Tuesday.
But Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), who leads the agriculture subcommittee, told reporters this was a put-up-or-shut-up moment after weeks of sparring over the House’s posture on spending: “We’re thinking: OK, fine, then let’s go forward and see if they object and they’re just using it as an excuse.”
This much is clear: If Democrats refuse to help advance the full-year bills, Republicans plan to cast them as obstructionists. And if they agree, Republicans will argue that undercuts their shutdown stance.
“If we can show that we can move the appropriations bills, there’s absolutely no justification or rationale for a government shutdown,” Collins told POLITICO.
The dilemma threatens to split Senate Democrats who have mostly presented a united front during the shutdown.
Democratic appropriators could be tempted to cooperate on bipartisan legislation they traditionally support. But the party would risk softening its push for GOP commitments on extending Obamacare subsidies and spending federal money as appropriated.
Senate Appropriations Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said she recently told Speaker Mike Johnson that only a leadership-level negotiation on a broader list of outstanding items, including health care, could break the impasse and end the shutdown.
But it could be tempting to at least make progress on the full-year bills while the shutdown drags on. As Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) told POLITICO, those are “two separate issues.”
“Since we’re here, let’s go ahead and get started on it,” he said. “I like the idea of using our time wisely.”
What else we’re watching:
— Johnson’s shutdown presser: The speaker will host a news conference with other House GOP leaders and Main Street Caucus Chair Mike Flood (R-Neb.), Vice Chair Laurel Lee (R-Fla.) and military veterans Reps. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) and Zach Nunn (R-Iowa) on the House steps at 10 a.m.
— House Democrats’ shutdown programming: Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will host a news conference with House Democrats on the House steps at 11:30 a.m. before their caucus meeting at noon. House Democratic leaders and their Steering and Policy Committee co-chairs will hold a forum on rising health care costs in the Capitol Visitor Center at 3 p.m.
— Possible Russia sanctions vote, Zelenskyy meeting: Thune left the door open Tuesday to voting on a long-stalled Russia sanctions bill as soon as this month. It comes as Trump is expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the White House on Friday where the two will discuss supplying Ukraine with weapons. Senators are also working to set up a bipartisan meeting with Zelenskyy later this week.
Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.
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