WASHINGTON ― As the pain of the longest-ever full government shutdown becomes more acute, and hundreds of thousands of federal workers and military members go without paychecks, the paralyzed U.S. Senate is getting antsy.
The leadership of both parties remains dug in four weeks into the shutdown, but rank-and-file members are looking for possible off-ramps and ways to lessen the effects on Americans as the situation becomes more dire, including travel delays at airports due to staffing shortages and growing lines at food banks across the country.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) over the weekend suggested President Donald Trump finally get involved by creating a bipartisan commission to hammer out a deal that would reopen the government and address expiring subsidies for millions of people who get their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. Trump has mostly been disengaged from the crisis, refusing to sit down and talk with Democrats until they agree to fund the government. He left town over the weekend for a trip to Asia and isn’t scheduled to return until later this week.
“I suggest President Trump come forward, name three Republicans and three Democrats in the Senate to an official commission to figure this out over a one-month period and come back with a solution,” Paul said on “Fox News Sunday.” “But in exchange for that, I think the Democrats need to open the government for a month, and then we need to pay the workers, pay our soldiers, and then I think we could come to a solution ― but it has to be something different, it can’t be the same old, same old.”
