Oct. 15 (UPI) — The U.S. Senate is expected to vote Wednesday afternoon on a measure that would fund the government, and President Donald Trump said he plans to release a list Friday of “Democratic” programs he’s eliminated.
Today’s vote will be the 10th Senate vote to open the government, which has now been shut down for 15 days. Democrats and Republicans are still at odds on bills to reopen.
The ninth vote on Tuesday to fund the government until Nov. 21 failed 49-45 with six senators absent. To pass, it needs 60 votes.
Trump’s list of cut programs is scheduled to be released Friday.
“We are closing up Democrat programs that we disagree with, and they’re never going to open up again,” Trump said. “We’re able to do things that we’ve never been able to do before. The Democrats are getting killed.”
Though Trump has made funding available for service members to get their next paychecks, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., said it’s a temporary measure.
“If the Democrats continue to vote to keep the government closed as they have done now so many times, then we know that U.S. troops are going to risk missing a full paycheck at the end of this month,” Johnson said at his daily press conference.
Democrats are holding out for healthcare subsidies from the Affordable Care Act, which Republicans recently cut from the appropriations bill, and approval for Medicaid funding. Millions of Americans are expected to see their health insurance premiums skyrocket when the subsidies expire at the end of the year.
The longest shutdown lasted 35 days in December 2018 and January 2019. Johnson said that “we’re barreling toward one of the longest shutdowns in American history unless Democrats drop their partisan demands.”