Government shutdown nears third week as Senate prepares for another vote

The Senate is expected to return Tuesday to vote again on reopening the government, but like many times before, the plan is expected to fail again as a deal remains elusive.

Upper House lawmakers are expected to vote for an eighth time on the House Republican Party’s continuing resolution (CR) as the government shutdown approaches its third week. But after a long weekend away from Washington, D.C., it’s unlikely that either party has changed its position.

Senate Republicans want to pass the House’s short-term “clean” funding extension, which would reopen the government until November 21. This includes millions in spending on security for lawmakers and a budget correction for DC’s local government.

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Senate Republicans are not ready to take a “nuclear” approach to the filibuster as the government shutdown continues, despite Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., pushing to change the nomination rules earlier this year. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

But Senate Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., remain adamant that they will not provide Republicans and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., with the votes needed to reopen the government unless there is a firm deal to extend the expiring Obamacare subsidies.

The two sides are talking, splitting into smaller groups that focus on some of the Democrats’ demands, like extending subsidies or putting in place guardrails for future cancellations and seizures of federal funding.

However, no concrete negotiations or way out of the closure have materialized.

“I think leader Schumer has stepped down,” Thune told reporters Friday. “I don’t think it’s going to happen. I think it’s going to happen organically with enough reasonable Democratic senators who care enough about doing what’s right for their country and not what’s in the best interest of their left-wing political base to come forward and help us find a solution.”

So far, only three members of the Senate Democratic caucus, Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Angus King, I-Vt., have consistently crossed the aisle to reopen the government.

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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks to reporters following the weekly Senate Policy Luncheon on Capitol Hill in Washington, October 7, 2025. (Allison Robbert/AP Photo)

A key deadline, which was expected to make Democrats reluctant as the shutdown continued, was met over the weekend. While lawmakers were away, President Donald Trump authorized Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to use “all available funds” to pay the military by October 15.

But Schumer has stood firm that he and Democrats want more than just a guarantee that the subsidies will expire and are demanding that Thune, Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., come to the negotiating table.

“We Democrats want to end this shutdown as quickly as possible,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “But Donald Trump and the Republicans need to seriously negotiate with us to resolve the health care crisis. We can and must do both. It’s not one or the other, as the Republicans think.”

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President Donald Trump walks aboard Air Force One before departing Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, September 21, 2025. (Mandel Ngan/AFP)

But Senate Republicans countered throughout the shutdown that Democrats routinely voted for CRs under former President Joe Biden, and that the only difference between then and now is that Trump is in office.

“Democrats are playing a political game because they think every day gets better for them,” said Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo. “And it’s not good versus the left. It’s good versus evil. That’s what we’re facing in this country today.”

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And there’s yet another deadline on Capitol Hill fast approaching, this time to pay Senate staff.

“I’m concerned that not everyone is getting paid,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. “We need to reopen the government, and I think people need to sit down and talk. And so far the president has not wanted to talk, the leaders of both houses have not wanted to talk.”