Senate Majority Leader John Thune struck a cautionary note Thursday as bipartisan talks that could end the 30-day government shutdown kick into a higher gear, warning that a deal to advance full-year spending bills would move forward only after Democrats agree to a stopgap measure reopening federal agencies.
Thune told reporters it would likely take days, if not weeks, for the Senate to pass a package of larger spending bills.
“Even if you’ve got consent it’s still going to take a while to move those bills across the floor so we’ve got to reopen the government and then we’ll have a normal appropriations process,” he said.
The comments come amid a new flurry of rank-and-file talks aimed at breaking the monthlong impasse. Part of those bipartisan discussions have focused on how to move fiscal 2026 spending bills, with some appropriators suggesting that a package of full-year-bills could advance as a show of good faith before the Senate passes a shutdown-ending stopgap.
Both Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson rejected that idea Thursday, with the top House leader saying at a news conference that Republicans “have one purpose, and that is, turning this thing back on.”
“All those other efforts or deviations, it’s political games,“ he said.
What has been offered by Republicans, as POLITICO previously reported, is to quickly move two packages of spending bills once the government is reopened.
The first would include the Agriculture-FDA, Military Construction-VA and Legislative Branch bills. The second would include the Defense and Labor-HHS measures, as well as potentially Transportation-HUD and Commerce-Justice-Science funding. Some senators have discussed potentially trying to attach the first package, which has already passed the Senate, to a stopgap bill.
How soon any of this could come together remains a mystery. Republicans believe Democrats are on the cusp of agreeing to end the shutdown as soon as next week, and Thune, during a Thursday morning interview with CNBC, pointed to Tuesday’s off-year elections as a possible pivot point where the dynamic could shift on Capitol Hill.
Notching a bipartisan appropriations deal, however, won’t address Democrats’ central shutdown demand: an extension of expiring Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies.
Thune has offered Democrats a vote on the ACA subsidies as well as a meeting with President Donald Trump as soon as next week. But Democrats have called that insufficient, and some are starting to float a “working group” to address the issue.
Thune left the door open Thursday to launching an ACA working group after the government reopens but warned that he’s “not a big fan of gangs.” Instead, he said, “I’m kind of a fan of regular order” — where committees with expertise in the matters being negotiated take the lead.
But he acknowledged members of both parties are “interested” in a working group and said he’s “open” to the idea.
Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.
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