Rand Paul

Nov. 7 (UPI) — Democrats are ready to end the federal government shutdown if Republicans agree to extend Affordable Care Act credits for another year, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Friday afternoon.

Schumer, D-N.Y., said Senate Democrats favor passing a temporary funding measure and three other bills that would fund the federal government for one year, CNN reported.

“Democrats are offering a very simple compromise,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.

“Now, the ball is in the Republicans’ court,” he added. “We need Republicans to just say yes.”

Schumer’s announcement came after Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., earlier said the Senate will work through the weekend to negotiate reopening the federal government and possibly vote after a bipartisan effort failed Thursday.

Thune wanted to hold another vote on the House-approved continuing resolution to fund the federal government through Nov. 21, but Senate Democrats aren’t on board, he told media earlier Friday.

“Our members are going to be advised to be available if, in fact, there’s a need to vote,” he said.

“We will see what happens and whether or not, over the course of the next couple of days, the Democrats can find their way to re-engage again,” Thune added.

Thune earlier this week expressed optimism that a funding agreement would be made this week, but that ended after Senate Democrats met on Thursday.

“All I know is that the pep rally they had at lunch yesterday evidently changed some minds,” he said Friday.

“We had given them everything they wanted and had asked for,” Thune explained. “At some point, I was gonna say they have to take ‘yes’ for an answer, and they were trending in that direction.”

The impasse is due to Senate Democrats not trusting President Donald Trump to agree to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits that expire after December and to stop firing federal employees, The Hill reported.

Senate Democrats held a working lunch on Thursday, as referenced by Thune, during which they rejected a bipartisan proposal to reopen the government.

Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Angus King, I-Maine, had worked out a deal with the GOP, which buoyed Thune’s hope of ending the government shutdown on its record 38th day.

Senate Democrats discussed the bipartisan proposal during their Thursday lunch and rejected it due to their distrust of the president.

The proposal would have included a short-term funding measure to reopen the government and a three-year appropriations bill that would have funded the Agriculture Department, Veterans Affairs, military construction and the legislative branch.

The USDA funding would have meant full funding for currently suspended Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.

Lacking strong guarantees that the president would support extending Affordable Care Act credits that initially were enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic and that are scheduled to expire at the end of the year, the Senate Democrats said they won’t support the bipartisan plan to move forward.

Despite the continued opposition from Senate Democrats, Thune doesn’t expect the shutdown to continue into the Thanksgiving holiday weekend at the end of the month, he said while appearing on Fox News Friday.

Thune needs at least five more Senate Democrats to join with Democratic Party Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and King, who caucuses with Senate Democrats, to approve the continuing resolution.

Fetterman, Masto and King consistently have voted in favor of continuing the 2025 fiscal year budget while negotiating the budget for the 2026 fiscal year, which started on Oct. 1.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is the only Republican senator to continually vote against the measure.

The House-approved continuing resolution consistently has received a majority of support in the Senate, but it has not received the 60 votes needed to overcome the Senate’s filibuster rule for passage.

Nov. 7 (UPI) — Republicans narrowly defeated a bipartisan bill in the Senate requiring congressional approval for military action against Venezuela as the Trump administration continues a military buildup in the region and attacks on alleged drug boats in nearby waters.

The GOP lawmakers rejected Senate Joint Resolution 90 in a 51-49 vote on Thursday evening, with Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska casting ballots in favor of the measure with their Democratic colleagues.

The resolution was introduced by Paul, and Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff of California and Tim Kaine of Virginia in response to reporting that President Donald Trump was considering military ground strikes against Venezuela.

Venezuela has long been a target of Trump, who, during his first administration, launched a failed multiyear pressure campaign to oust its authoritarian leader, President Nicolas Maduro.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has used his executive powers to target drug cartels, including the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. Trump has claimed, without providing evidence, that TdA has “invaded” the United States at Maduro’s direction, despite his own National Intelligence Council concluding in May that the regime “probably does not have a policy of cooperating” with TdA.

The vote was held as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a 17th known military strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat in Caribbean international waters. Since Sept. 2, the United States has killed around 70 people in the attacks.

The attacks have drawn domestic and international criticism and allegations of war crimes, murder and extrajudicial killings. Some Democrats called on the Trump administration to answer questions over the legality of the strikes without gaining proper congressional approval.

Following the Thursday vote, Kaine said the Trump administration told some members of Congress that it lacked legal authority to launch any attacks into Venezuela. Some worry that an attack could devolve into a full-scale war.

“Trump’s illegal strikes on boats in the Caribbean and threats of land strikes in Venezuela recklessly and unnecessarily put the U.S. at risk of war,” Kaine said in a statement.

In a separate statement, he criticized his Republican colleagues, stating: “If the U.S. is going to put our nation’s sons and daughters into harm’s way, then we should have a robust debate in Congress in front of the American people.”

Sen. Todd Young, a Republican of Indiana, voted against the bill on Thursday, and explained in a statement that he has been informed of the legal rationale behind the strikes and does not believe the resolution is appropriate right now, but that could change.

“My vote is not an endorsement of the administration’s current course in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. As a matter of policy, I am troubled by many aspects and assumptions of this operation and believe it is at odds with the majority of Americans who want the U.S. military less entangled in international conflicts,” he said.

Oct. 29 (UPI) — The U.S. Senate has passed legislation terminating the national emergency declared by President Donald Trump to impose tariffs on Canada, a day after it terminated the United States’ tariffs on Brazil.

Republicans Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul, also of Kentucky, joined their Democratic colleagues in a 50-46 vote to pass S.J. Res. 77 on Wednesday evening.

“Tonight, the Senate came together and sent President Trump a clear, bipartisan message: he cannot continue to abuse his power and unilaterally wage a trade war against one of our strongest allies,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said in a statement.

“We cannot afford to keep raising costs, hurting businesses and eliminating jobs by attacking our neighbor and ally.”

The move is mostly symbolic as it is not expected to be taken up by the Republican-controlled House.

Tariffs have been a central mechanism in Trump’s trade and foreign policy, using them to right what he sees as improper trade relations as well as to penalize nations he feels are doing him and the United States wrong.

In February, Trump announced 25% tariffs on Canadian imports under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, attracting retaliatory tariffs from Ottawa.

Then, in August, Trump raised tariffs on Canada to 35%.

Over the weekend, Trump announced a further 10% tariff on Canada over anti-tariff aired by Ontario’s provincial government.

The legislation passed Wednesday seeks to cancel the declared emergency, under which the tariffs were imposed.

“In order to strengthen our weakening economy, we need stability and strong relationships around the world — not chaotic trade wars that raise prices, shut American businesses out of foreign markets and decrease tourism to the U.S.,” Kaine, who sponsored the bill, said in a statement.

Relations between Canada and the United States, the closest of allies, have greatly soured under the second Trump administration. From tariffs to comments about annexing Canada, Ottawa and its citizens have begun to turn away from the United States in distrust and frustration to strengthen trade and defensive relations with Europe.

On Tuesday, five Republicans joined the Democrats to pass a similar bill seeking to end Trump’s tariffs on Brazil.

Oct. 29 (UPI) — The U.S. Senate on Tuesday night passed legislation terminating the national emergency declaration to impose duties on Brazilian imports, dealing a blow to President Donald Trump‘s use of the punitive economic measures to penalize the South American country for prosecuting his ally, former President Jair Bolsonaro.

The Senate voted 52-48 in favor of S.J. Res. 18, with five Republicans — Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul, also of Kentucky — joining their Democratic colleagues in ending the emergency and, consequently, the tariffs.

The bipartisan bill was introduced by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Paul.

Speaking from the floor prior to the vote Tuesday, Paul criticized the tariffs as a tax being levied against the people of the United States — taxes, which fall under the purview of the House of Representatives, not that of the executive branch.

“The Senate is compelled to act because one person in our country wishes to raise taxes without the approval of the Senate, without the approval of the House, without the approval of the Constitution,” he said, referring to Trump.

“The idea that one person can raise taxes is contrary to our founding principles.”

Tariffs have been a central mechanism of Trump’s trade and foreign policy, using them to right what he sees as improper trade relations as well as to penalize nations he feels are doing him and the United States wrong.

Starting in April, Trump imposed a 10% baseline tariff on nearly every country under a national emergency declaration, the legality of which is being challenged in court. In late July, Trump imposed an additional 40% tariff on Brazil via an executive order under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Trump had threatened Brazil with tariffs over how Bolsonaro “has been treated.”

Bolsonaro was being prosecuted at the time the tariffs were imposed for attempting a coup following his 2022 election loss to current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. In September, he was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

In his floor speech Tuesday, Kaine asked what threat to the U.S. economy, national security or foreign policy did Brazil pose to the United States to necessitate the national emergency.

“We have a trade surplus with Brazil: $7 billion a year in goods, $23 billion a year in services,” he said. “This president has said their prosecution of a disgraced politician is a national emergency for the United States? How could that be? Mr. President, if this is a national emergency, any president of any party could say that anything is a national emergency for the United States.”

Oct. 16 (UPI) — The Senate failed for the 10th time to approve a temporary funding bill to reopen the federal government and voted down a Defense Department appropriations bill on Thursday.

The Senate voted 51-45 in favor of a funding resolution to reopen the federal government, but the vote total was less than the 60 needed for approval.

Two Senate Democrats, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, and independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, voted in favor of the temporary government funding measure, according to CNN.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was the lone GOP member to vote against the measure.

The Senate later in the day voted 50-44 on a year-long appropriations bill to fund the Defense Department as the government enters the 16th day of its shutdown over a stopgap funding bill.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., opposed considering the Defense Department spending bill without also considering the Labor, Health and Human Services appropriations bill, The Hill reported.

Like the government funding measure, the defense budget needs 60 votes to pass. It also would have given a raise for military personnel.

Senate Democrats have voted consistently with no change during the 10 votes to reopen the federal government, as have GOP senators, including Paul in his funding opposition.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., responded to the legislative stalemate by offering to hold floor debates on respective spending bills to fund federal agencies for the 2026 fiscal year, Politico reported.

Thune also suggested Senate Democrats, who have proposed an alternative temporary funding measure, might have some caucus members vote for the House-approved funding resolution due to the effects of an extended government shutdown.

The House already approved the measure favored by the GOP, which simply extends the 2025 funding through Nov. 21 while continuing negotiations on a full-year funding bill.

Senate Democrats have proposed an alternative measure that would fund the federal government through Oct. 31 and extend Affordable Care Act tax credits on insurance premiums and expand Medicaid access.

Schumer blamed the GOP for the budget impasse by refusing to negotiate a proposed $1.5 trillion in additional spending over the next decade that Senate Democrats want to include in the stopgap funding.

“The Trump shutdown drags on because Republicans refuse to work with or even negotiate with Democrats in a serious way to fix the healthcare crisis in America,” Schumer said, as reported by Politico.

Thune in an interview that aired on MSNBC on Thursday morning said Senate Republicans will not negotiate the ACA tax credits until the government is open again, according to ABC News.

The fiscal year started on Oct. 1, which is the first day of the government shutdown due to a lack of funding.

Thune said his party plans to attach additional funding bills to the Pentagon measure, though it’s unclear if Democrats support the idea, CBS News reported.

The additional bills would seek to fund the Departments of Health and Human Services and Labor.

In an analysis published in September, the Urban Institute said the number of uninsured people between the ages of 19 and 34 would increase by 25% if the subsidies expire in the new year.

There would be a 14% increase among children. In all, 4.8 million people would lose health insurance coverage.

The Trump administration has said it’s against extending the ACA subsidies, and has accused Democrats at the state level of using federal tax dollars to provide undocumented immigrants with healthcare services, which Democrats have denied.

Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for health insurance under the ACA, the federal healthcare.gov website states.

In an appearance on MSNBC on Wednesday night, Thune said he told Democratic leaders he’d be willing to hold a vote on the subsidies in exchange for their help reopening the government.

“We can guarantee you a vote by a date certain,” he said. “At some point, Democrats have to take ‘yes’ for an answer.

“I can’t guarantee it’s going to pass. I can guarantee you that there will be a process and you will get a vote.”

Oct. 14 (UPI) — The U.S. Senate on Tuesday failed for the eighth time to pass legislation that would end the government shutdown that is now two weeks old.

A Republican-backed bill that would temporarily fund the government through Nov. 21 failed on a 49-45 vote, requiring 60 votes to advance under Senate rules.

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was the only Republican to vote against the bill. On the other side of the aisle, Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Angus King of Maine voted in favor of the bill.

The vote means that the shutdown will extend into its 15th day on Wednesday with no clear offramp.

Democrats have demanded that extensions of health insurance subsidies be included in any funding deal. Tens of millions of Americans are expected to see their health insurance premiums skyrocket after the subsidies expire at the end of the year.

During a floor speech Tuesday, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., chastised President Donald Trump for meeting with Argentina’s right-wing President Javier Milei to offer a $20 billion bailout for his nation’s struggling economy.

“This Argentina bailout is a slap in the face to farmers and working families worried about keeping healthcare,” he said. “If this administration has $20 billion to spare for a MAGA-friendly foreign government, they can’t turn around to say we don’t have the money to lower health care costs here at home.”

During a press availability earlier that day, Senate majority leader John Thune, R-S.D., blamed any pain from the shutdown on Democrats, demanding that they agree to fund the government before negotiating on healthcare subsidies.

“This is outrageous what they are doing,” he said. “They ought to be ashamed.”

Thune called Schumer “checked out” and said the end will come from working with enough “reasonable Senate Democrats.”

Senators last voted on funding legislation on Thursday before heading into a long break coinciding with Monday’s bank holiday. With no action on the issue in several days, lawmakers in both chambers — and within the Trump administration — have used the time to trade criticisms over who’s to blame for the shutdown, which has left about 750,000 federal workers furloughed or working without pay.

In addition to furloughs, the Trump administration has begun carrying out mass firings, including 1,446 employees at the Justice Department and another 1,200 at the Department of Health and Human Services, USA Today reported.

The Trump administration said it’s working to make sure active-duty military service members receive their next paychecks Friday by repurposing about $8 billion Congress had appropriated for other areas of the Defense Department. President Donald Trump took to Truth Social over the weekend to announce he ordered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “use all available funds to get our Troops PAID on October 15th.”

Johnson held a news conference Tuesday morning at the Capitol and said Trump had “every right” to repurpose the funds.

“If the Democrats want to go to court and challenge troops being paid, bring it,” Johnson said.

Romina Boccia, the director of budget and entitlement policy at the Cato Institute, told The Hill on Monday that it is legal for Congress to repurpose un-obligated funds, but for the administration to do so unilaterally “is likely illegal.”

“An un-obligated balance does not give the administration the right to use the money as it wishes,” Boccia said. “If Congress wants to ensure that America’s troops will be paid during the ongoing government shutdown, Congress should pass a bill that authorizes funding to pay the troops.”

Doing so would require a vote by the House, which is on recess for the rest of the week. Johnson has said he will not call House members back to Washington, D.C., early.

At the heart of the deadlock are subsidies for Affordable Care Act premiums set to expire in the new year.

Schumer has said Senate Democrats wouldn’t support the stopgap legislation unless Republicans back extending the subsidies.

The Trump administration has said it’s against extending the ACA subsidies, falsely claiming undocumented immigrants are benefitting from it. Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for health insurance under the ACA, the federal healthcare.gov website states.

Oct. 3 (UPI) — The government shutdown continues into Monday afternoon after the Senate failed to approve one of two proposed temporary funding measures on Friday.

The Senate voted 54-44 on a Republican-sponsored and House-approved continuing resolution that would have funded the federal government for another seven weeks while negotiating a budget for the 2026 fiscal year that started on Wednesday.

The measure needs at least 60 votes to overcome a potential filibuster and go to President Donald Trump for signing.

A counterproposal by Senate Democrats that would fund the federal government through the end of October but would add $1.5 trillion in spending and was defeated by a 46-52 vote.

The Senate convened at 11:30 a.m. EDT and adjourned at 3:57 p.m. following the defeat of the two temporary funding proposals.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., earlier said the government could reopen as soon as a funding bill is passed, but the Senate won’t reconvene until 3 p.m. on Monday.

Thune briefly discussed matters with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., during Friday’s floor votes but said he likely would have more success by meeting with others in the Senate Democrats’ caucus, CBS News reported.

Many senators were hopeful of reaching an agreement to end the legislative impasse and reopen the government, but Schumer urged his colleagues to oppose the House resolution, according to The Hill.

The GOP reportedly is willing to extend tax credits for the Affordable Care Act after they expired on Tuesday.

With the GOP controlling 53 Senate seats, it would need support from all Republican Senators and seven more from the Democratic Caucus to approve the House-approved measure, but Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has been the lone dissenting Republican vote.

Thune earlier said the Senate will adjourn until Monday if the Senate does not approve one of the funding resolutions, which would extend the federal government through the weekend.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has halted $2.1 billion in federal funding for public transportation infrastructure in Chicago and $18 billion for projects in New York City.

The Trump administration also canceled $7.5 billion in funding for energy projects in states carried by former Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 election.

President Donald Trump said his administration also will determine which federal agencies will be defunded and possibly eliminated.