On Capitol Hill, there was nearly no signal of progress towards ending the shutdown. Senators say they are not even formally negotiating, which begs the query: what are they really doing?
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
It’s Day 10 of the federal government shutdown. And on Capitol Hill, there have been nearly no indicators of progress. The Senate has voted seven instances on the identical two short-term funding measures, and 7 instances they failed to finish the shutdown. And now, senators say they are not even formally negotiating. So what are they doing? NPR congressional reporter Sam Gringlas spends a while with senators asking simply that.
(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Three-fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted within the affirmative, the movement just isn’t agreed to.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Will not be agreed to.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Not agreed to.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: Will not be agreed to.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: This movement just isn’t agreed to.
SAM GRINGLAS, BYLINE: Day after day, lawmakers have been submitting into the Senate chamber to vote on the identical two proposals to reopen the federal government – one backed by principally Republicans, the opposite by Democrats. The spending payments want 60 votes to advance, which suggests bipartisan assist is the one method ahead.
JOHN FETTERMAN: Folks actually are simply sort of dug in after which all the pieces is hyper-politicized.
GRINGLAS: Democratic Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania has been 1 of two Democrats voting with Republicans on a invoice to fund the federal government for just a few extra weeks. Most Democrats are holding out for a deal to resume expiring medical health insurance subsidies. Sitting on a bench exterior the chamber, Fetterman says the limitless loop of votes just isn’t what he envisioned serving within the Senate can be like.
FETTERMAN: I feel individuals ought to understand that there is no glamor.
GRINGLAS: President James Buchanan described the U.S. Senate because the world’s best deliberative physique. Ask senators this week in the event that they suppose that is true, and also you get plenty of responses like this from Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia.
RAPHAEL WARNOCK: I want we did extra deliberating.
GRINGLAS: Even so, he says voting no on the Republican-backed invoice as a way to protect the subsidies is precisely what his constituents despatched him to Washington to do. Warnock, a Baptist pastor, says possibly his colleagues throughout the aisle will come round.
WARNOCK: It is by no means too late to return to Jesus.
GRINGLAS: On the onset of this shutdown, Republicans promised cracks within the Democratic Caucus. Democrats mentioned they might quickly peel off Republicans. Neither has occurred. Here is Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana.
JOHN KENNEDY: The additional we go, the deeper we get dug in. That is the best way I see it.
GRINGLAS: And that may make it appear slightly like “Groundhog Day.” Republican Senator Thom Tillis walked away from a press gaggle muttering, my God, make it cease. Unbiased Senator Angus King of Maine says he would not consider that is what the founders meant.
ANGUS KING: If you concentrate on it, we have solely actually handed, I feel, two or three payments this 12 months, and that is not what this establishment was designed to do.
GRINGLAS: However some lawmakers are attempting to maintain that spirit of give and take alive. A bipartisan group of senators traded concepts over Thai meals earlier this week, although Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski was tight-lipped in regards to the particulars.
LISA MURKOWSKI: I do not discuss what occurs at mealtimes.
GRINGLAS: Why is it essential to maintain having casual gatherings like that presently?
MURKOWSKI: Speaking. Speaking, completely. If you do not have communication, nothing modifications, proper?
GRINGLAS: Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma additionally attended however skipped the Thai meals.
MARKWAYNE MULLIN: I like cheeseburgers. I like sizzling canines. I like pop tarts. I like cookies.
GRINGLAS: Mullin says the group did not negotiate the tip of a shutdown. They talked about what ought to occur after.
MULLIN: ‘Trigger we belief one another, and we will have candid conversations. They usually’ve been, I feel, fairly productive.
GRINGLAS: There have been glimmers of a possible path ahead, like a potential vote after reopening the federal government to increase the subsidies. That is why Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia says the repetitive votes should not a waste.
TIM KAINE: Votes are usually the explanation that everyone involves the ground after which spends time speaking to attempt to discover a answer. We’ve not discovered an answer but, however we will maintain at it.
GRINGLAS: However on Friday, the senators went residence for the weekend with no deal and the shutdown now stretching into one other week.
Sam Gringlas, NPR Information, Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF MARISA ANDERSON’S “HESITATION THEME AND VARIATION BLUES”)
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