WASHINGTON (AP) — Tours at the Capitol have come to a standstill. The House is keeping its doors closed, while the Senate repeated its loop Wednesday of failed votes to reopen the government. President Donald Trump is threatening to mass fire federal workers and refuse back pay for the rest.
As the government shutdown entered a second week, there's no discernible endgame in sight.
“Congress, do your damn job,” said Randy Erwin, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, with other top union leaders near the Capitol.
No negotiations, at least publicly, are underway, but behind the scenes quiet talks are emerging. Clusters of lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats, are meeting privately, searching for ways out of the impasse, which hinges on striking a deal for preserving health care subsidies.
Signs of discomfort are apparent: Military personnel and federal employees are set to miss paychecks, flights are being delayed at airports nationwide and federal programs are disrupted. Confrontations erupted at the Capitol.
Two dueling bills, one from Republicans and the other from Democrats, failed again in the Senate.
Shutdown grinds on and tempers flare
The Republicans who have majority control in Congress believe they have the upper hand politically, as they fend off Democratic demands to quickly fund health insurance subsidies as part of any plan to end the shutdown.
House Speaker Mike Johnson appears so confident he is preparing to take live questions from callers on C-SPAN's Thursday morning public affairs show.
But so have Democrats dug in, convinced that Americans are on their side in the fight to prevent the looming health care price spikes and blaming Trump for the shutdown.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer insisted it was Republicans who are “feeling the heat.”
Tensions rose Wednesday to a boil.
Outside the speaker's office, Arizona’s two Democratic senators who were demanding that Johnson re-open the House to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva. She won a special election to the state's Tucson-area seat last month and has said she would sign on to releasing the files on the sex trafficking investigations into Jeffrey Epstein, but has yet to be seated in Congress.
Johnson, facing a diminished GOP majority once the new Democrat takes office, declined.
A short time later House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York was confronted by home state GOP Rep. Mike Lawler. He was demanding the leader's support for a one-year extension of the expiring health care subsidies, as Democrats pushed for a better deal. The encounter quickly digressed.
“You shut the government down,” Lawler railed.
“You're embarrassing yourself,” Jeffries retorted.
Health insurance for millions is at stake
At its core, the debate is over the health care issue that has tangled Congress for years, and in particular, the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, that Trump tried, and failed, to repeal and replace during his first term at the White House.
Congress increased the federal subsidies that help people purchase private insurance policies on the Affordable Care Act exchanges during the COVID-19 pandemic. The federal aid was popular, and it boosted ACA enrollment to a record 24 million people. Those enhanced subsidies are set to expire at year’s end.
Republicans say Congress can deal with the health insurance issue in the months ahead. Democrats are fighting to resolve the problem now, as people are receiving notices of higher policy rates for the new year.
Two prominent Republicans, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, have broken from their party, saying something must be done to help Americans pay for the coming health insurance rate hikes.
Trump wants to make a health care deal
A loosely formed collection of senators, Republicans and Democrats, have bantered about options for addressing the health insurance problem. Some of them met over Thai food dinner.
Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has offered her own plan for kickstarting talks. It involves re-opening the government now, but with a “commitment,” she said, to discussing the health care issue.
Another option floated by GOP Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, a former state governor, is a temporary extension of the subsidies, for one year, and then a phase out.
And Trump himself signaled he was open to negotiating with Democrats over their demands to save health care subsidies. Earlier this week, the president said that talks were already underway as he wants “great health care” for the people, only to shift his tone hours later to say the government must reopen first.
“I’m pretty discouraged,” Rounds said Wednesday. “My sense is that’s probably past the point of getting anything done.”
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., sounded a similarly sour note.
"I’m an optimist, but wow are we not making much progress,” Coons said.
But GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, who is close to Trump, said, “There’s always a group talking,”
Missed paychecks for workers, and more failed votes
While federal employees have often missed paychecks during shutdowns, Trump is now threatening to do away with guaranteed back pay, which would be a stark departure from what is normal. The White House budget office, under Russ Vought, argues the law says back pay is not automatic, and Congress would need to approve it.
The union leaders warned Trump against using the federal workers as “political pawns” in the political brawl.
“And president, you better start obeying the Constitution,” Erwin said.
Part of the reason the parties are so unwilling to budge from their positions is because their internal data is encouraging them not to cave.
Senate Democrats have been briefed on information suggesting their health care messaging was resonating with voters. A memo from Senate Majority PAC was also circulated to House Democrats and campaigns nationwide on Tuesday, with a clear directive: hold the line.
Republicans, meanwhile, are sticking to their own playbook. A memo from the House GOP’s campaign arm urged candidates to focus on the shutdown’s economic impact, including a district-level breakdown of who would be affected by a government shutdown.
Each side has framed the shutdown fight as a precursor to the 2026 midterm elections.
___
Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Stephen Groves and Matt Brown contributed to this report.