Oct. 30 (UPI) — The U.S. Senate is meeting Thursday to vote on various bills, though the House-passed bill to reopen the government is not on the agenda.
Thursday is Day 30 of the federal government shutdown with votes scheduled for 11:45 a.m. EDT. Democrats are holding out for funding for marketplace health insurance plans, and Republicans want to continue without the funding, leading to the 30-day impasse. The longest government shutdown in history was 34 days.
The Senate has voted on the funding bill 13 times.
The Senate will first look at a resolution on the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska involving lease sales of land. The second is on a bill sponsored by Democrats that confronts the use of an emergency declaration that President Donald Trump used to create tariffs.
A report released Thursday from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said the federal government shutdown has cost businesses that contract with the government $12 billion in the first four weeks.
The Chamber is sending the report to members of Congress. It says that 65,000 small businesses are losing about $3 billion per week. Those businesses include providers of high-tech machinery, office supplies, and landscaping services, the report said.
“The Chamber is again calling on Congress to immediately pass the continuing resolution to reopen and fund the government,” Neil Bradley, the Chamber’s executive vice president and chief policy officer, wrote in a letter to Congress. “We also urge Congress to consider ways to help make federal contractors, especially small business contractors, whole.”
The Senate this week passed resolutions to block Trump’s tariffs on Brazil and Canada, which were approved with the backing of some Republicans. The bills aren’t expected to make it through the House of Representatives.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Wednesday that bipartisan discussions on opening the government have “picked up,” saying there’s a “higher level of conversation.”
“But there are a lot of rank-and-file members that continue, I think, to want to pursue solutions and be able to address the issues they care about, including healthcare, which … we’re willing to do, but it obviously is contingent upon them opening up the government,” Thune said.
“The open-enrollment period is beginning on Saturday and tragically the Republicans have won their battle to increase health care costs on the American people. That is the result of the position that they’ve taken in this negotiation. Now we know that the American people’s health care costs are going to go up because the Republican Party in Washington is refusing to extend the Obamacare tax credits,” The Hill reported Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., said. Bennet is a member of the Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over health insurance tax subsidies.
The Trump administration has said it’s against extending the Affordable Care Act subsidies. Trump has falsely claimed that undocumented immigrants use them. People here without proper documentation are not eligible for health insurance under the ACA, according to the federal healthcare.gov website.