Senate GOP eye ‘traditional way’ of funding government as Democrats’ filibuster keeps shutdown going

Senate Republicans are trying a new approach in enticing Democrats to reopen the government, offering a test vote on taking up some of the annual spending bills after repeated failed votes on a temporary stopgap measure.

Democrats have not yet decided as a group whether to block the latest GOP effort. But some say their priority remains the same: extending a COVID-era expansion of Obamacare premium subsidies.

“The only thing I’m focusing on right now has to do with ensuring that premiums of 24 million Americans do not go up,” said Sen. Ruben Gallego, Arizona Democrat. “I’ll make determinations based on that.”

Senate Republicans have teed up a test vote for Thursday on the House-passed defense appropriations bill. That bill is just a vehicle; their ultimate goal is to substitute it with the bipartisan Senate version of the defense appropriations bill and other nondefense spending measures reported out of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

If the test vote succeeds, that would allow the Senate to move a few spending bills “at the same time and get the government funded in a traditional way, which is through the annual appropriations process,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican.

This process is a much more cumbersome way to reopen the government than the approach Senate Republicans have tried for weeks, repeatedly voting on a House-passed stopgap bill that would re-up the previous fiscal year’s spending levels and policies through Nov. 21.

Senate Democrats blocked that bill for the ninth time on Wednesday in an effort to get Republicans to negotiate on the Obamacare subsidies and other health care and spending priorities.

They may end up doing the same on the defense appropriations measure.

“We should be focused on fixing these health care premiums and getting the government back open,” said Sen. Mark Kelly, Arizona Democrat. “Just to bring up the one bill without the others, I think, is something we typically don’t do.”

Senate Democratic leaders say they haven’t decided how to vote because they’re not sure which spending bills Republicans are offering to package together.

“We have to see what they’re going to put on the floor,” said Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat. “They haven’t told us yet.”

Mr. Thune has not been specific in his public remarks other than saying the Senate should take up its defense spending bill that was reported out of committee on a 26-3 vote.

“And hopefully, if possible, we’d like to attach some other appropriations bills to it,” he said.

Sen. John Boozman, Arkansas Republican and a senior appropriator, said there have been discussions about including the largest nondefense spending bill, which funds the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Departments.

Democrats have many of their top spending priorities in the Labor-HHS-Education bill and have often demanded that move alongside defense spending, which carries many GOP priorities.

Mr. Boozman said the two spending bills that fund the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Commerce and Justice Departments could also be included in the package. That would create a potential four-bill spending package, known as a “minibus.”

There are 12 annual spending bills. The House and Senate have each passed three, but only one that funded the same department, Veterans Affairs. Even then, the House and Senate passed different versions and haven’t reconciled them.

The Senate included its veterans funding measure in a three-bill minibus it passed earlier this summer. The spending bills that fund the legislative branch and the Agriculture Department were also included.

The House, despite not having passed the latter two, voted to form a conference committee with the Senate to negotiate differences with the Senate on those three bills. The Senate has yet to agree to the conference, but the leaders are currently running a “hotline” to see if they can get unanimous consent to do so.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said appropriators have continued bipartisan, bicameral discussions on those three bills during the shutdown.

The House has been in recess since Sept. 19, when it passed the stopgap funding bill. House GOP leaders have told members they’d give them at least 48 hours’ notice before calling the chamber back into session.

Mr. Johnson has said he would not bring the House back until the Senate votes to reopen the government. On Wednesday, however, he left the door open to a return if the Senate were able to pass a new appropriations package.  

“Dependent upon action in the Senate, we can get all this moving again, and we can get back to all the regular order and all the things that are stacking up on our plates,” he said.

The speaker was skeptical that Senate Democrats would allow any appropriations package to advance.

“My suspicion is the Democrats are going to play their same political games and stop that cold,” he said of the defense spending measure. “I hope I’m surprised by that, but we’ll see.”