The Senate on Oct. 1 for the second straight day rejected competing funding measures to reopen the government, prolonging a shutdown that began at midnight.
A GOP stopgap measure failed 55-45 on a procedural vote requiring 60 votes, NBC News reported. Three members of the Democratic caucus — Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., John Fetterman, D-Pa., and Angus King, I-Maine — joined Republicans in support, while Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was the lone GOP “no” vote.
Minutes earlier, a Democratic short-term funding bill fell 47-53, also short of the 60-vote threshold. All Democrats backed the measure, and all Republicans opposed it.
Masto, one of three Democrats who voted for the GOP bill, said she doesn’t understand “engaging in a shutdown that’s going to harm people,” according to NBC.
She insisted that Congress “should be doing our jobs, solving these problems, getting together and addressing what the American public, that I know in my state, what they are feeling.”
Fetterman, who also voted with Republicans, echoed the frustration.
“Why are we shutting the government down?” Fetterman asked, according to the outlet. “You know, we should have a conversation. Why can’t we agree?”
During an Oct. 1 White House press conference, Vice President JD Vance said he doesn’t “think it’s going to be that long of a shutdown,” citing cracks among moderate Democrats.
“They understand the fundamental illogic of this,” he said, adding that “for years” every single politician has understood that “you don’t shut the government down over policy disagreement.”
Still, Vance warned that federal layoffs could become unavoidable if the stalemate drags on.
“We are going to have to lay people off if the shutdown continues,” he said. “We don’t like that. We don’t necessarily want to do it, but we’re going to do what we have to to keep the American people’s essential services continuing to run.”
He insisted the administration would not target workers based on politics, but its goal is to ensure “as much as possible of the essential services can continue to function.”
During the conference, Vance blamed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for the shutdown, accusing him of caving to the party’s left wing out of fear of losing a potential primary to Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
“Our troops are not getting paid starting today because of the Chuck Schumer wing of the Democratic Party,” the vice president said. “We have people who require food assistance, low-income Americans who require food assistance, who will not get it unless we reopen the government, thanks to Chuck Schumer and his wing of the Democratic Party. We have flood insurance as we start hurricane season in the southeastern part of our country. That flood insurance is going to disappear because of Chuck Schumer and the far left of the Democratic Party.”
In an Oct. 1 White House article, the administration also charged that Democrats triggered the shutdown by prioritizing “extraordinary efforts to accommodate illegal aliens while repealing reforms that strengthen healthcare for American citizens.”
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