![\"Senate](\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/chuckschumeroct15_0-1024x683.jpg\")
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., left, accompanied by Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., points to a poster depicting rising medical costs if Congress allows the Affordable Care Act tax credits to expire in December as he speaks to reporters following a Democratic policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 15, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Andrew Harnik\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON \u2014 Congress has roughly two months to find bipartisan agreement to curb rising health insurance costs if lawmakers want to avoid another government shutdown.<\/p>\n
That herculean task would be difficult in the best circumstances, but is much more challenging after lawmakers spent the last 43 days criticizing each other instead of building the types of trust that are usually needed for large deals. Democrats maintained they wanted to address skyrocketing premiums for individual health care plans, while Republicans insisted those talks had to occur when the government was open.<\/p>\n
At the same time, congressional leaders will try to wrap up work on the nine full-year government funding bills that were supposed to become law before Oct. 1 and weren\u2019t included in the package that reopened the government.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Congress must pass all of those bills or another stopgap measure before the new Jan. 30 deadline, regardless of how well or disastrous talks on a health care bill turn out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The two-track negotiations will push party leaders to compromise on issues they\u2019d rather not, especially as next year\u2019s November midterm elections inch closer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Early signs were not good.<\/p>\n
House Speaker Mike Johnson said during a Wednesday night press conference the enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits set to expire at the end of the year are a \u201cboondoggle\u201d and that \u201cRepublicans would demand a lot of reforms\u201d before agreeing to extend those in any way.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe currently have 433 members of the House of Representatives. There\u2019s a lot of opinions in this building. And on our side, certainly, a lot of opinions on how to fix health care and make it more affordable. I have to allow that process to play out,\u201d Johnson, R-La., said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., made a commitment to hold a vote on a health care bill before the end of December to conclude the shutdown, Johnson has avoided giving a timeline for when he would bring any similar legislation to the floor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump, aside from throwing insults at Democrats, largely stayed on the sidelines of the shutdown fight, though he suggested the funds used for the tax credits should in some way go directly to individuals instead of large insurance companies.<\/p>\n
The shutdown highlighted the stark differences Republicans and Democrats hold on health care as prices for insurance continue to spike, forcing millions of Americans to choose between taking care of themselves and breaking their budgets, States Newsroom found in interviews with members of Congress.\u00a0<\/p>\n
GOP leaders held together throughout the funding lapse and didn\u2019t negotiate on the expiring ACA marketplace tax credits, or anything else.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now that it\u2019s over, Republicans will need to put something forward.<\/p>\n
Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said her sense is that Congress will \u201cprobably be in the same place on January 30th that we are now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have two parties here, two sides,\u201d DeLauro said. \u201cIn the past \u2026 we\u2019ve had serious negotiation back and forth, and that\u2019s what we need to do, and that\u2019s not happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Republicans have unified control of government, major legislation needs the support of at least 60 senators to advance in that chamber. Republicans hold 53 seats at the moment, meaning at least some Democrats must support a bill for it to pass.\u00a0<\/p>\n
DeLauro did not rule out another shutdown, saying Democrats plan to take the next few months \u201cone day at a time,\u201d while closely watching what Republicans are willing to do on the nine full-year appropriations bills and health care costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maryland Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer, former House majority leader and a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, said Republican leaders keeping that chamber in recess for nearly two months leading up to and during the shutdown significantly delayed work on the full-year government funding bills.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hoyer said that scheduling decision was a clear \u201cindication they\u2019re not interested in solving the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they were, they would have had members here working on appropriation bills,\u201d Hoyer said. \u201cAnd the only way you\u2019re going to ultimately solve this problem is to pass appropriation bills.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hoyer said the real question facing Congress now isn\u2019t whether there is time to work out agreement on the remaining nine government spending bills, but whether there\u2019s a will to make the types of compromises needed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0spending package that reopened the government<\/a> included three of the dozen full-year bills, funding the Agriculture Department, Food and Drug Administration, Legislative Branch, military construction projects and Department of Veterans Affairs.<\/p>\n The remaining appropriations bills will be considerably tougher to resolve, especially because the House and Senate have yet to agree on how much they want to spend across the thousands of programs. Trump\u00a0proposed major cutbacks<\/a> in multiple programs in his budget request earlier this year that Democrats have strongly resisted.<\/p>\n The Defense, Homeland Security, Labor-HHS-Education and State-Foreign Operations bills will be some of the more difficult to settle.\u00a0<\/p>\n Congress could always lean on another stopgap spending bill to keep funding relatively flat for the departments and agencies not covered by a full-year bill before Jan. 30. But lawmakers will need bipartisan support to advance in the Senate.<\/p>\n Washington Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal, former chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said Republicans don\u2019t seem to grasp how much Americans are struggling with the cost of living, including for health insurance and health care.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMy constituents are already telling me that they\u2019re making that choice between having health insurance or having a house to live in, and they\u2019re going to choose the house,\u201d Jayapal said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Whether or not a partial government shutdown begins in early 2026 will likely depend on whether Republican lawmakers from swing districts force bipartisanship on a health care bill.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI really don\u2019t know,\u201d Jayapal said. \u201cI think it depends on these vulnerable House Republicans, who are not going to be able to go back to their constituents without telling them that they\u2019ve done something on health care.\u201d<\/p>\n Democratic Rep. Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico said she wouldn\u2019t be surprised if Congress is unable to strike a deal on government funding and winds up in a partial shutdown by February.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cDo I think that the Republicans have the political juice to get \u2026 the rest of their appropriation bills across the finish line and a health care deal? No,\u201d Stansbury said.\u00a0<\/p>\n She added that she hopes a handful of Republicans decide to join Democrats on the discharge petition bill that would force a floor vote on a bill to extend the ACA marketplace subsidies for three years.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe gotta find a few brave Republicans who still have a backbone and some guts to stand up to this administration and actually care for their constituents,\u201d Stansbury said.\u00a0<\/p>\n But any bipartisan deal to extend those health care tax credits seems fraught, as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries slammed Republicans as having \u201czero credibility on this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n He pointed to Republicans trying several times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, including their last attempt in 2017, when GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine and the late John McCain of Arizona crossed party lines to vote against repealing the 2010 law.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no evidence that they\u2019re serious about extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits,\u201d Jeffries, of New York, said. \u201cRepublicans have zero interest in fixing the health care crisis that they\u2019ve created.\u201d<\/p>\n When Democrats controlled both chambers, temporary health care subsidies were originally passed as part of the COVID-19-era American Rescue Plan in 2021 for two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n With Democrats still controlling both chambers, lawmakers approved the Inflation Reduction Act, the 2022 signature climate policy bill from the Biden administration, that extended those health care subsidies for three years, expiring at the end of December 2025.<\/p>\n The outcome of the just concluded shutdown is shaping some House Democrats\u2019 views.<\/p>\n Virginia Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott said if there is a new shutdown come February, Senate Democrats will have to decide whether they\u2019re going to \u201ccave again, or at least engage in negotiations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the (Senate) Democrats say: \u2018Our strategy wasn\u2019t working,\u2019 it wasn\u2019t working because they assume you\u2019re going to cave, which you just proved,\u201d Scott told States Newsroom. \u201cTheir strategy worked \u2014 trying to get them to negotiate and talk to you doesn\u2019t because they know you\u2019re going to cave.\u201d<\/p>\n Scott said \u201cthere\u2019s no point in taking 41 days to cave,\u201d pointing to the eight members of the Senate Democratic Caucus who broke ranks\u00a0to advance<\/a> and\u00a0later approve<\/a> the package to reopen the government.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhy don\u2019t you just cave right at the beginning, on February 2nd?\u201d he said. \u201cIf the Republican strategy is: \u2018We\u2019re not going to negotiate at all because you\u2019re going to cave,\u2019 you have to show them that you\u2019re not going to cave, then you can have a discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n Scott said the same health care issues will still exist if nothing happens between now and the package\u2019s Jan. 30 government funding deadline.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBy then, we\u2019ll know that several million people don\u2019t have health insurance, we\u2019ll know that rural hospitals are beginning to suffer,\u201d Scott said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Delaware Democratic Rep. Sarah McBride said that \u201cfrom today through November (2026) and after, we will continue to be talking about health care, to be fighting for health care.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think what you\u2019ve seen over the last several months, you will continue to see from us through November and then, God willing, once we\u2019re in a majority, we\u2019ll do all that we can to reverse these cuts and restore care and expand access to it,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., left, accompanied by Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., points to a poster depicting rising medical costs if Congress allows the Affordable Care Act tax credits to expire in December as he speaks to reporters following a Democratic policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 15, 2025 in Washington, D.C….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPolitical juice and a backbone<\/h4>\n
\u2018No point in taking 41 days to cave\u2019<\/h4>\n