After a week of partisan deadlock and a looming payday disaster for federal workers, the wall of Democrat opposition to a Republican plan to reopen the government is beginning to crumble. On Tuesday, three Senate Democrats…John Fetterman (D PA), Catherine Cortez Masto (D NV), and Angus King (I ME) broke ranks with their party to support a clean GOP backed stopgap spending bill, according to Politico.
The government shutdown, now in its seventh day, has already impacted thousands of federal workers. With missed paychecks on the horizon, pressure is mounting on both parties to find a resolution. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D NY) had insisted as recently as Monday that Democrats hold the line to preserve Obamacare subsidies, which Republicans want debated in a separate bill. But cracks in that unified stance are now showing.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R SD) has tried repeatedly to pass a clean short term funding bill but has consistently come up short of the 60 votes needed. The most recent vote ended in a 55/45 split, five votes shy. Now, with Democrats beginning to cross the aisle, the math is starting to shift.
Fetterman was the first to signal support for the Republican plan. “Shutting our government down isn’t a game,” he posted on X. “Democrat or Republican, regardless of the reason, America loses. Blame is on anyone that picks party over country.”
Cortez Masto, who had previously demanded GOP negotiations on health care, offered a more pragmatic take on Tuesday. “We need a bipartisan solution to address this impending health care crisis, but we should not be swapping the pain of one group of Americans for another,” she said. Her pivot comes after growing concern in her home state of Nevada over rising costs and federal service interruptions.
Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, joined Republicans for the first time on Tuesday. “I did not want to hand Donald Trump and Russell Vought and Stephen Miller additional power to decimate the federal government,” he said in a video, calling the vote one of the hardest he’s cast since entering the Senate.
With this shift, momentum is now building for a possible breakthrough, but time is running out. If five more senators break ranks, the GOP led measure could finally bring this shutdown to an end.
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