By Nathan Worcester
Contributing Writer
WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Friday proposed a new plan to end the record-breaking federal government shutdown, drawing swift rejections from Republicans.
Schumer made the pitch ahead of a possible vote on a Republican-backed bill to fund the government.
“What the Senate is doing isn’t working for either party and isn’t working for the American people,” Schumer said.
Schumer said on the Senate floor that his proposal would continue expiring premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, for a year, giving lawmakers time to work out a longer solution.
They are slated to expire at the end of this year. Open enrollment for Obamacare, when prospective customers first got a look at potential new costs, began on Nov. 1.
“That’s not a negotiation. It’s an extension of current law,” Schumer said of the proposal to prolong funding for the health care subsidies.
The proposal would also create a bipartisan commission to examine health care issues.
A Republican-backed continuing resolution has failed to advance more than a dozen times since the shutdown began on Oct. 1.
Yet, there was little sense of buy-in from the majority leader.
Ryan Wrasse, a spokesman for Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., wrote on X that the proposal shows “cracks are forming.”
Wrasse rejected the premise that a one-year extension of the subsidies would circumvent negotiations.
“Extending the COVID bonuses is the negotiation — something that can only take place after the government reopens. Release the hostage. End the pain,” he said.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., responded negatively to the minority leader’s idea.
“Another year of insane profits at the expense of consumers and American taxpayers. Insurance companies love this idea,” he wrote on X.
In his Friday floor speech, Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., told senators that the proposal was “not an overreach on the part of, say, folks who want a single-payer health care system.”
“We are in a practical crunch,” he said of the impending subsidy expiration date.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
