Senate rejects funding patch for 10th time amid shutdown stalemate

The Senate for the tenth time Thursday voted down the House-passed spending patch as the government shutdown plods along with no end in sight.

And, because the chamber doesn’t plan to be in legislative session again until Monday, it all but guarantees the funding lapse will hit the three-week mark at midnight Tuesday.

As Senate Majority Leader John Thune continues to force votes on the GOP-led stopgap, Democratic senators show no signs of breaking rank and voting in support. The same Democrats who have been voting against the legislation in recent days continued to cast “no” votes Thursday to advance the measure that would fund the government through Nov. 21.

Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with Democrats, voted again in support of the Republican-led stopgap, along with Democratic Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada.

But one new variable has emerged this week that could help end the stalemate: Thune is hoping to fire up floor debate on individual spending bills that would fund federal agencies for a full year, starting with the Pentagon and perhaps also the departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and Education.

“I can’t explain why, but this does have a different feel,” Thune told reporters Wednesday night about the plan to try to debate full-year funding measures amid the government shutdown. “There’s an offramp here: It’s just to fund the government.”

Getting agreement from lawmakers in both parties to proceed with this plan will be challenging, however, and it can take weeks or months to pass a regular government funding bill in the Senate under normal circumstances.

Thune said Democrats might start to come around to the Republican funding patch next week, when “some of the impacts of the shutdown will be more felt.” But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer reiterated ahead of the Thursday vote that Democrats were still waiting for Republicans to signal they’re willing to negotiate on health care — their key demand.

“Another week has passed, and the Trump shutdown drags on because Republicans refuse to work with or even negotiate with Democrats in a serious way to fix the health care crisis in America,” Schumer said.