Senate has enough Democratic votes to reopen government after 40-day shutdown

Senate Democrats emerged from a two-and-a-half-hour caucus meeting Sunday night announcing there will be enough votes in the Senate to reopen the federal government after a grueling 40-day shutdown.

A group of centrist Democrats led by Sen. Angus King (Maine), an independent who caucuses with Democrats, and Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), negotiated the deal to reopen government with Republicans on the Senate Appropriations Committee led by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).

King told reporters after the caucus meeting that there will be the votes to pass the deal through the Senate and that the Democrats who are backing the legislation feel the shutdown has gone on long enough.

Asked if he’s confident there would be enough votes to pass the bill, King told reporters: “That’s certainly what it looks like.”

The Senate will go back into session at 8 .m. Sunday and is expected to vote Sunday evening to end the shutdown.

King said “the length of the shutdown” persuaded Democrats to support the deal, many elements of which had been on the negotiating table for weeks.

He said it became increasingly clear that Republicans were not going to agree to a deal to reopen the government and extend enhanced health insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act that are due to expire in January.  

King says there’s still a “chance” the subsidies will be renewed because Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has promised as part of the deal to give Democrats a vote on the ACA subsidies in November.

“Part of the deal is a vote on the ACA subsidies,” he said.

He said that he and other members of the Democratic caucus want to end the shutdown in the next few days because “a lot of people are being hurt.”

The bill still needs to pass the House, which hasn’t voted since Sept. 19. It then needs to go President Trump’s desk for a signature.

Several Democrats emerged from the meeting, however, pledging to oppose the deal, including Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). 

"A wink and a nod to deal with this health care crisis later – with no actual guarantees – is just not enough for me or the Wisconsin families I work for," Baldwin said in a statement.