Senate expected to vote again Friday afternoon
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The Senate is expected to hold several votes Friday afternoon, including another round of procedural votes on the House-passed Republican measure to keep the government funded until Nov. 21 and a separate measure from Democrats to fund the government through October.
Both measures include security funding for lawmakers and other federal officials, but the Democratic measure would also make expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits permanent.
Republicans say negotiations on the tax credits, which expire at the end of the year, can happen once the government reopens.
The House-passed bill and its counterpart failed twice in the Senate last month. A procedural vote on each also failed Wednesday.
The Senate was in session Thursday, but no votes were held in observance of the Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur.
Vought pauses $2.1 billion for Chicago infrastructure projects
Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought announced on the third day of the shutdown that the Trump administration is halting $2.1 billion in transit-related projects for Chicago.
“$2.1 billion in Chicago infrastructure projects — specifically the Red Line Extension and the Red and Purple Modernization Project — have been put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting,” Vought wrote on X.
He said the Department of Transportation would release more information on the funding pause.
As the lapse in federal funding has continued, Vought has made a series of announcements stripping or halting funding for projects in states represented by Democratic senators. The Trump administration has frozen $18 billion in infrastructure projects in New York, home to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
It has also canceled nearly $8 billion in climate-related projects in 16 states, all represented by Democratic senators.
What has the Senate voted on so far?
Senators first voted on the dueling measures to fund the government on Sept. 19, after the House passed the GOP-led bill that would fund the government until Nov. 21. The Democratic proposal, which no Republicans have supported, would fund the government until Oct. 31 and extend health insurance tax credits that Democrats have made a top priority.
On Tuesday, with hours before the funding deadline, the Republican proposal picked up support from Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Nevada Democrat, and Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats. Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat who had previously supported the measure, also voted in favor. Republicans had been hoping to build on the support from Democrats with Wednesday’s vote, but the outcome remained unchanged at 55 to 45. Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican who opposed stopgap measures to keep the government funded, has consistently voted against the measure.
Senate Republicans are seeking to peel off more Democrats to support their proposal with Friday’s vote.
“They’ll have a fourth chance tomorrow to vote to open up the government,” Thune said. “And if that fails, then we’ll give them the weekend to think about it, we’ll come back and we’ll vote again on Monday.”
On Thursday, the Senate was briefly in session, but held no votes as senators observed Yom Kippur.
Senate “unlikely” to work through the weekend
The Senate is “unlikely” to be in session over the weekend, according to Majority Leader John Thune.
On Thursday, the South Dakota Republican said if Friday’s vote on the House-passed continuing resolution fails, then “we’ll give them the weekend to think about it, we’ll come back and we’ll vote again on Monday.”
Jeffries says Republicans have shown “zero interest” in having a conversation; Johnson says there’s no reason to talk
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, said Thursday afternoon that Republicans have shown “zero interest” in having a conversation after congressional leaders met with President Trump at the White House on Monday.
“Leader Schumer and myself haven’t gotten a single phone call as it relates to a follow-up conversation,” Jeffries told reporters.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said earlier Thursday that he wasn’t negotiating with Democratic leaders because “I quite literally have nothing to negotiate.”
